


Tongue Tied

by Treaty



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Camping, College AU, Comedy, Crush, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Interns & Internships, M/M, Making Out, Masturbation, Mention of underage drinking, Misunderstandings, Multiple Pov, Pining Dean, Sam Winchester - Freeform, Self-Discovery, Slow Build, Smut, smart ass college students, smut in later chapters, undeclared - Freeform, wet dreams
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-06-07 03:17:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6783079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treaty/pseuds/Treaty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel journeys through college trying to make the years memorable.  He's challenging himself to get out of his comfort zone and be open to new experiences.  Hopefully he has a chance to figure himself out before one specific new experience begins to play out...</p><p>...a huge ugly crush.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. God Given Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> I'm having a lot of fun writing this fic and have an outline of how the next few chapter should go.
> 
> Smut to ensue in later chapters.

Castiel Novak was by no means a shy person.  He could speak in public…and _out loud too_ if the situation called for it.  But rarely did it call for it.  Therefore at freshmen orientation he was easily slated as a loner, which was fine.  What was the point of going off to college in the city if not to gain a little independence?

No, Castiel didn’t mind being alone, but he did feel like he was out of his comfort zone.  Truth be told, he was a little envious of some of the other students at his orientation who already seemed to be at ease on campus.  They were all excited and confident in what they were doing, whereas Castiel was fidgety.

Orientation wasn’t really a huge undertaking, but neither of Castiel’s parents had ever gone to college so there had been no one to tell him what to expect or how to act.  He was on edge trying not to mess anything up.  It felt like he had been dropped off on the side of a deserted highway not knowing which way was home.

“Ok folks!” rang an amplified voice throughout the ballroom auditorium. They had just finished a very long introductory “Breakfast” slash “Way-Too-Much-Info-at-Once” morning lecture.

“We are now going to be breaking up into groups based on majors, so after I call yours out go ahead and find your Orientation Leader!” continued the man’s voice with forced enthusiasm.

Castiel waited in his seat as the business majors gathered and left followed by Liberal Arts, Chemistry, and Criminal Justice.  Then, all of a sudden an unfamiliar face was invading his personal space.

“Aw shit dude, did you hear where the Criminal Justice group was supposed to meet?” asked the other student.

Castiel was staring at green eyes in shock for a second before opening his mouth to respond.  Unfortunately he hadn’t used his voice to say a damn thing all morning so nothing came out but a hoarse whisper.

To Castiel’s credit though, he only fumbled for a second before deciding to physically point with his hand in the direction of the Criminal Justice majors.  The other young man waved his thanks with an amused smile and hurried to catch up with his group.

“That’s the kind, “Castiel mumbled to himself mesmerized, watching the other guy’s retreading figure, “That’s exactly the kind of asshole who seems like he already fits right in.  Meanwhile, I had to give myself a pep talk in the bathroom before walking into this place.”  He shook his head in exaggerated disapproval before remembering he was in a room full of people and stopped.  He tried to play if off by pretending to swat at a fly but quickly realized no one was watching him anyway.  With a tiny blush of embarrassment, he picked up the remainder of his bagel to nibble at while he waited.

After a few more majors were called the announcer finally listed “Undeclared” which prompted the gathering of a surprisingly stereotypical, awkward group of students to meet by exit 2B.

“Hi, everyone!  My name is Jo and I am going to be your Orientation Leader today,” called a petite blonde who was addressing the group.  “I’m actually a geology major, but don’t worry, I was undeclared once too so I know how it is.  Just know that you have resources here to help you figure it out,” she continued with actual genuine enthusiasm.

Castiel felt a little bad that she seemed to be going the extra mile there to get the group engaged, only to be met with blank stares.  She didn’t seemed phased by it though, probably because this had to be like the 6th orientation week she’d worked.  Then again it was also possible that she really did understand undeclared students and their hesitation to do anything, especially participate in groups.

The day moved on systematically and Castiel’s morning nerves quickly evolved into mind-numbing boredom.  They had taken a tour, gotten their student ID cards, and sat through another lecture during lunch.  The only entertaining part was watching their undeclared group dwindle in numbers.  Every now and then Jo would announce that so-and-so had decided to declare Business, or that so-and-so got poached by the allure of the Criminal Justice department.

At the end of the day they were finally able to register for classes.  Since Castiel was undeclared he simply signed up for 15 units worth of  General Education courses and left, towing along his now stuffed, drawstring goodie bag crammed with pamphlets.

"Of course," Castiel mumbled when he realized he missed the bus home.  He saw the shine coming off its taillights just as it was leaving the campus bus terminal (a personal offense from the bus itself towards Castiel, he was sure).  Normally this would have put him in a bad mood but he was tired out from the long day so he just plopped down on one of the benches to wait 20 minutes for the next bus.

It was then that it dawned on Castiel that he had just completed orientation.  He had been stressed during the days leading up to it, checking his confirmation email religiously and even running possible scenarios through his head of what kinds of things he would encounter.  And at the end of the day it had all been completely routine.  He had started the day shitting his pants, but trying something new had literally not killed him.  Not much of a silver lining, but not the worse outcome ever.

A bit satisfied with himself, he spent the remainder of the 20 minutes watching a girl regret having fed one of the fat campus squirrels.  Just as it had lunged over her backpack, the next bus pulled into the terminal and squeaked to a halt, subsequently drowning out the shrieks from the now sandwich-less student.

Castiel lived a few stops from campus in a cheap two-bedroom apartment he shared with his cousin Gabriel.  It was cheap because unlike other places, there was no pool, or gym, or rec center.  What they did have were very thin walls, which was a small sacrifice to make for month-to-month rent.

Gabe had dropped out of university abroad after one year; in what he had thought was a grand flashy gesture of rebellion.  In reality Castiel understood that Gabriel had just not vibed well with a traditional school and went for something more hands-on.  He enrolled in a culinary institute.  After that he had approached Castiel about moving in together since his new school was in the same city, for which Castiel was actually really grateful.  At least now he had someone who might be able to offer some advice.

When Castiel finally managed to make it through the front door he collapsed on the couch and kicked off his sneakers.  His entrance had alerted Gabriel in the kitchen who stuck his head out from inside a cupboard to greet his younger cousin.

“Cassie!  Just in time, I want you to taste this sauce Chef had the audacity to describe as melted play-doh.” Gabriel called out as he carried a ladle full of what smelled like marinara sauce towards Castiel. 

Castiel obliged, taking a sip from the offered spoon.  “Be honest.  Be brutal,” Gabriel demanded, eyebrows knit together waiting for a verdict, “You can’t actually taste the play-doh can you?” he asked with mock concern.

“Actually, tastes more like silly putty,” Castiel responded dryly.  He lifted the ladle back up to his mouth and polished off its contents, “Makes a damn good sauce though,” he replied honestly.

His answer seemed to satisfy Gabriel who then went back to tend to his sauce.  Castiel followed him into their small kitchen that was connected directly to their living room, distinguishable only from where the carpet turned into a tile floor.

He sat at the kitchen table, which was actually one of those outdoor patio tables with the glass tops.  Gabriel claimed he had bought it off craigslist but Castiel swore he had seen it a few weeks ago as a display piece outside the supermarket where Gabriel worked the night shifts.

“So, how was orientation?”  Gabriel asked as he continued rummaging through the cupboards for something to strain the noodles with.

Castiel fished his laptop out of his backpack as he answered, “It was actually really uneventful.  Which is about as good as I expected it to go.  I did get a decent schedule though.”  He then reached into his drawstring goodie bag and pulled out his fall semester schedule.

One of the few perks of being undeclared was that you had the liberty to satisfy your General Education requirements with all sorts of different subjects, instead of trying to get them to overlap with one major. “Freshmen English, Coms 4, Phil 2, and Geology 8,” he listed off.

“What? No math! Whose dick did you have to s—,”

“—I’m undeclared remember!” Castiel cut him off chuckling, “You hold off on math until you know if you need calc or not for your major, or stats I suppose.”

“Oh, of course, yeah, calculus and such,” Gabriel rambled on as he finished straining the noodles, “Wait! Geology?!” he snapped his attention back to his cousin, “Gonna study some THRUSTING, are we? Gonna make the BEDROCK?  Want people to think you’re the SCHIST?”

Castiel groaned at the onslaught of bad puns, “One of these days my patience is going to wear out, Gabe...so don't you take it for _granite_.” He couldn’t help himself; he’d be lying if he said he didn’t love bad puns.

“Oh shit!” Gabriel hollered at Castiel’s unexpected participation, “ _Gneiss_  one!”

Castiel let his cousin giggle to himself over the sauce while he typed his classes onto his laptop calendar. “I was actually inspired by my Orientation Leader.  She’s a geology major and seems to really enjoy it so I figured, why not.  I needed a physical science class anyway,” he explained as he worked away at his keyboard.  He never really used his laptop calendar, but it gave him something to do and filled him with a false sense of productivity which always helped to lift his spirits.  Plus he could work on memorizing the names of the lecture halls so he didn’t have to look at a map on the first day of class.

Castiel actually felt a spark of excitement looking down at his schedule.  Besides English, he had never taken these subjects before.  Hopefully one of them would catch his interest.

“So I managed to arrange my schedule in a way that allows me to have the afternoons free,” Castiel explained, “That way I can work a few hours a day.”  He looked up at his cousin for some feedback.

Gabriel shut off the stove burners and turned around to start pulling some plates from the dish rack.  “Look Cassie, I know you want to avoid large loans by working, but you don’t have to stress too hard on financial issues.  Besides, debt is part of the college experience, right next to sexual awakenings, binge drinking, and caffeine addiction!” He grabbed Castiel’s laptop and tossed it on the couch to make room for dinner then continued.  “Look, in all seriousness, if you really want to work, look for an internship.  Not all, but most have a scholarship, or even like minimum wage.  But trust me; the experience gained at an internship will pay off more in the long run than saving a few bucks working a part-time job now.”

Castiel just blinked at his cousin and his rare moment of level-headedness.  After the initial impression wore off he figured it was as sound a decision as any.  “Ok, let’s say I get an internship, maybe just for a semester or two.  Where would I intern if I’m undeclared?” he thought aloud.

“Doesn’t matter! Just make sure it’s in a professional office setting.  You develop what they call ‘soft skills.’  Ya know, multitasking, good communication, etc., etc.  Then you can worm your way into a specific field later.”  He finally took a seat opposite Castiel after handing him his food, and began chowing down on his own heaping plate of pasta.  Castiel followed suite. 

“Oh my God, Cassie,” Gabe added around a fork full of food, “and just imagine if you find some cougar boss that offers to be your sugar daddy and pay your tuition!  All for a few naughty tumbles in the sheets,” he wiggled his brow suggestively before slurping up his mouthful of spaghetti.

“Well then, I’d have it made, honestly.  What undergrad doesn’t dream of finding a silver fox to cover all expenses?” Castiel nodded earnestly, stabbing his fork into his side salad.

“Right?  Any youngster our age would be game.  Not only does it create a solution for the unrelenting sex drive of a college student, but it also fills the needy gap left from leaving old Mom and Pop.”

At that Castiel grimaced, “Gabe, no.”

“Yeah I heard it after I said it.  Probably not the smartest idea mentioning parents and whoring yourself out for college tuition, all in the same breath.”

Castiel pushed down the chuckle that was trying to escape in order to keep a straight face, “Yeah, that’s not sexy.  You wouldn’t cut it as a ‘Cub’.”

“Not me Cassie, but you over there with the constant sex hair and the baby blues! Don’t waste your God given gifts,” he chuckled before returning his attention to his plate.  The two fell into an easy silence, each seemingly lost in thought as they ate.

“Gabriel…” Castiel threw his cousin a serious frown, breaking the silence, “…try saying ‘God given gifts’ five times really fast.”

Gabe shook his head, deciding not to indulge in his cousin’s nonsense and instead raised another forkful of pasta to his mouth.  “Not now Castiel.  I’m eating.”

Castiel finally dropped his stern expression and laughed hard enough to accidentally snort a strand of pasta.  He couldn't help it though, tongue twisters were an inside joke between him and Gabriel that Castiel was quite fond of.  It had happened at a family wedding where Gabriel was trying to hit on a bride's maid from the in-laws' side.  It hadn't gone very well since all he could think to do in order to impress her was recite every tongue twister he knew as fast as he could.  It had made no damn sense then and Gabriel still didn't know what had come over him, but Castiel was just grateful because it was one of the few times Gabriel showed he could be as dorky and clueless as Castiel.

 

***

 

When Castiel woke for his first day of college he found himself regretting every life decision he had ever made that had led him to that moment right there.  After allowing himself the small moment of panic, he dragged himself out of bed. 

Logically, he knew very well that he could manage the first day of classes.  In fact, his plan to tackling college as a whole was to take it one day at a time, one task at a time. “Today I will get to class and take decent notes,” was a much more manageable perspective than: “If I fuck this up, I have nothing to fall back on,” (which was not a helpful thought at all, really).

“Morning, Gabriel,” called Castiel as he passed by his cousin carefully combing his hair in the bathroom mirror.

“Morning!” responded Gabriel, parting his light brown hair this way and that, trying to find the best fit.  When he finally seemed satisfied he threw a wink at his own reflection, “My God, you’re gorgeous.”

“Aw, thanks Gabe.  I did put in the extra effort to make sure my laces matched my underwear.  Thank you for noticing,” Castiel grinned.

Gabriel finally exited the bathroom making his way down the tiny hallway towards the kitchen.  “You know, I’d be more concerned with the lanyard around your neck than your laces.”

“Why? What’s wrong with it?”  Castiel looked down at the green and gold lanyard he had received at orientation; it even had a plastic sleeve to hold his student ID in.  “Is it my lack of keys?  I only have the one for the apartment.”

“Just easy to peg you as a freshman is all.  You’ll notice the only people who actually wear those lanyards are athletes and freshmen,” warned Gabriel, stuffing a poptart in his mouth before washing it down with chocolate milk.

Castiel looked down at his lanyard again.  He grabbed his backpack from one of the kitchen chairs and dug around until he found the pin he got from his trip to Disneyland last summer and pinned it to the lanyard strap.  (Because now it was cool).

“Oh well if that’s the case, then my cover is safe.  I mean look at me,” Castiel gestured at all of himself, “this well-oiled machine just _screams_ football scholarship.”

Gabriel inhaled his second poptart before answering, glancing up and down Castiel’s smallish frame, “Football?  I don’t know about that. How about Quidditch?”

“That might be a bit of a stretch,” Castiel chuckled as he placed his lanyard around his neck again.

“Very true, Cassie, you’re not quite cool enough for Quidditch yet.”

“Gabriel…Can you say ‘quite cool Quidditch’ five times really fast?”

“…Get the hell out of here you weirdo.”  And with those final words of praise from his cousin, Castiel grabbed his things and headed out. 

In all seriousness Castiel really did appreciate the playful banter he and his cousin were able to throw at each other.  He found it really amusing since he’d never had a sibling growing up to bicker with.  

Castiel had grown up in a small town and had led a pretty quiet life up until then as a single child.  He was teased at school for being quiet, but not excessively.  In fact it stopped once the other students learned that Castiel was kind of a smart ass and always had a comeback, ready to speak up if he had to.  He had a few decent friends and really good grades.  But looking back after graduating he realized he hadn’t really lived in the moment, and felt like he somehow wasted four years of his life just going through the motions.

That’s also probably why he was undeclared.  He’d never taken the time to figure out what he was passionate about.  He did have a fondness of sketching but that was more of an outlet than a career path.  It was going to take some soul searching and time to figure out what Castiel was going to do.

That’s why he decided college would be different, he was going to be present and try new things.  Far more times than he cared to admit he had missed out on events or trips or experiences simply because of the anxiety he felt from stepping into unfamiliar situations.  His freshmen orientation had been his first big success and it even gave him enough confidence to feel excited about his first day instead of just nerves and nausea.

“Time to make some memories,” Castiel smiled to himself as he walked to the bus stop.

The bus stop to school was just across the street from his apartment.  He made his way there and waited.  When it finally showed, he flashed his student ID (conveniently hanging around his neck on the very cool lanyard) and went to take a seat.

At the next stop a few more people filed onto the bus.  Among them was another student who had flashed an ID hanging from a lanyard as well.  He made a beeline for the open seat next to Castiel who was already carrying his backpack in his lap instead of taking up two seats (like any decent human being would do).

The other guy nodded at Castiel by way of greeting so Castiel gave him a short, “Hey,” in response.  Now that Castiel knew the other student wouldn’t mind interaction, he decided to put his money where his mouth is and try something new:  make small talk with a stranger.

“So are you a freshman at the university?” Castiel asked noting the lanyard being worn around his neck, “…Or possibly an athlete?” he amended (just in case Gabriel was right).

“Um, yeah I’m a freshman?” the other guy answered a bit confused, “Why?  Are you an athlete?” he looked at Castiel with one brow raised. 

That’s when Castiel realized that the student sitting next to him on the bus was the lost criminal justice major from orientation.  Same green eyes…and this time Castiel noticed freckles, lots of freckles.  He probably didn’t remember him, which was not a huge surprise.

“I’m on a football scholarship,” Castiel replied, looping his fingers through the lanyard around his neck for emphasis. 

 “Oh, that’s cool, man, “the student congratulated somewhat hesitantly.  Castiel felt a little guilty for making this guy’s morning weird with his blatant lies, but it was similar to the type of conversations he had with Gabriel and he found it way too easy too lay on the sarcasm.

“My name is Dean Winchester,” the other guy offered, seemingly not knowing what else to say.

Castiel introduced himself in return, and after staring at each other for a few seconds in silence, decided he had nothing else to discuss with Dean Winchester so he turned to look out the window instead.  Dean didn’t seem to mind.

Once Castiel got off the bus he began walking towards the lecture halls to find his English class.  He quickly realized that he and Dean were heading for the same hall when both of them fell in step next to each other.  For a brief moment Castiel considered slowing down or speeding up to break the awkward tension but it dawned on him that both freshman were probably headed for the same English class too.

Finally Castiel crumbled under the pressure and went for the go to topic to break the ice again:  “So, what’s your major?”  He asked even though he already knew it.

Dean’s face seemed to brighten up at the prompting of the easy topic.  “Well right now I’m declared as criminal justice, but I’m considering maybe some type of engineering instead.  Like mechanical would be cool because it’s just something I’ve dabbled with for a while now.  Then of course there’s civil engineering, I mean you wouldn’t believe the kind of prestige that comes with developing new standards for designing concrete walls.”

Castiel stared intently at Dean as he went on about the different engineering routes he was considering.  He found himself wondering if Dean knew what he was talking about or was just pretending to know what he was talking about.  Either way it was… _abundant_ , and it made him feel like Mr. Winchester here really was one of those assholes who melded well with the college life style.

“So what about you, what’s your major?” Dean asked cutting off his train of thought.

“I’m undeclared.”

“Nice!” he responded with a smile.  They had finally reached the lecture hall and he was holding the door open for Castiel to walk through first.  Castiel gave him a questioning look before proceeding inside.

“You know, you’re one of the only people who hasn’t responded…underwhelmed at my major, or lack thereof,” Castiel explained to Dean as they made their way down the hall.  “Not that it bothers me being undeclared, but I’ve found that some people won’t take you seriously.”

“Nah that’s bullshit,” Dean scoffed, “You know something like 70% of college students will change their major at least once?  And if you think about it, I’m actually undeclared too.  I still haven’t made up my mind, the only difference is that the criminal justice department has my name on a list somewhere.”

Castiel nodded along to Deans little speech, deciding that all things considered, this college asshole might actually be one of the good guys.

After both boys stopped to check their schedules one last time to avoid the embarrassment of walking into the wrong class, they headed inside and found two seats towards the far end of the room.

Just as Castiel had promised himself, he took a moment to take it all in. He was living away from home, in a big city.  He was now relying on public transportation.  It was starting to get cold outside.  Shit, he forgot to pack a lunch. He was also sitting in a lecture hall about to take freshman English… _college_ freshmen English.  He was still a little nervous but mostly excited.  He had somehow managed to talk to a fellow classmate.  In fact he felt like if the professor were ever to tell them to “Turn around and get in groups of two,” it would be the first time Castiel wouldn’t be horrified because he “knew” someone at least.

Castiel glanced sideways at Dean who was busy getting his notebook and pen out of his backpack.  He hated to admit it, but when he had first seen Dean at orientation, he had only been half kidding about calling Dean an asshole.  It was probably just because Dean had one of those objectively handsome faces and that “All-American Boy” charm that Castiel had pegged him as one of those guys who just skate by on their good looks.

Not that he knew him very well at all now, but just from the morning’s interactions Castiel felt like he and Dean could become friends eventually (or at least form a study group).

Dean finally settled down in his seat and turned when he realized Castiel was looking at him.  “Cas?  What’s up man?” he asked in a low voice.

Castiel decided not to comment on the nickname, even though he felt it was a little early for nicknames.  Instead he held Dean’s gaze.

“Dean I just wanted to let you know.  I’m not here on a football scholarship.”

Dean raised his eyebrow again seemingly confused.  To clarify Castiel added, “I don’t play football.  I’m not a football player or any type of athlete at all really, contrary to what my lanyard would have you think.”  At his point Castiel knew he wasn’t making any sense, but luckily Dean didn’t seem phased by it.

“Wait, so you’re not a football player?  Shit, is Castiel even your real name then?”  Dean accused in mocked outrage.

“As far as I’m aware, yes it is.”

Dean responded by squinting his eyes at Castiel and shaking his head slightly.“... _Sure_ it is.”

 

 

 

 


	2. The Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Dean is hopeless.

Dean Winchester knew it was going to be a good day when he had woken up in the morning on time, without his mother having to drag him out of bed. Sure, most people move out when they go to college, but Dean had family obligations and with money being so tight around the house, there was no way he could justify paying rent when his home was a short bus ride away. At least he had managed to convince his mom to let him upgrade and move into the basement. There he had slightly more privacy and his own bathroom.

The only tricky part was getting to the bus stop on time. Dean wasn’t use to public transportation yet, because up until very recently, he would drive his classic, black Chevy Impala everywhere. It caused him true heartache to have to park his baby in the garage for a while, but again, he couldn’t justify buying a $200 parking permit for the semester when he could take the bus for free. Single parent incomes just couldn’t allow those types of luxuries.

So Dean found himself feeling kinda ridiculous as he power walked the two blocks to the bus stop that morning for fear of missing it, but of course today was his day and he made it right on time.

As soon as Dean stepped on the transit and showed the driver his student ID, which also served as a bus pass, he turned to look for a seat, and saw _him_.

“Holy crap, it’s the guy from orientation, the _hot_ guy from orientation with the blue eyes. It’s THE guy,” Dean thought to himself in silent panic. Suddenly he felt very self-conscious about how little thought he had put into his outfit that morning. He was wearing his tried and true plaid shirt and jeans, and for fuck’s sake why was he wearing his lanyard around his neck like a dork.

His doubting stream of thoughts ran through his mind in as little time as it took for him to realize that he had automatically walked right up to the ‘Hot Guy from Orientation with the Blue Eyes’ (or ‘The Guy’ as he had been calling him since then).

Again, luck was on his side because the seat next to ‘The Guy’ was empty, so Dean quickly nodded in an attempt to make him appear casual, and not betray the crazy amount of butterflies he was feeling in his stomach.

“Hey,” he responded as Dean took his seat. And holy crap he did not expect such a low, rough voice, but man, was it nice finally hearing it. Dean had certainly fantasized what ‘The Guy’ sounded like when he found himself alone in his own bed…and in the shower. And even one time parked outside of a deserted burger joint at 2am. He quickly shut down that train of thought, but couldn’t help feel like a blushing school girl when ‘Mr. Gorgeous’ (which Dean also secretly referred to him as) actually started talking to him.

Ten minutes later when Dean stepped off the bus he kept replaying the conversation he had just had.

“Well at least I know his name now,” Dean mumbled to himself. Castiel Novak was ‘The Guy’s’ real name, and it was definitely one Dean had never heard before. He really hoped he had heard right.

Their conversation had been short and kinda random. He was about 73% sure that Castiel had been joking about being on the football team; he struck Dean as a dry humor kind of guy with dead pan deliveries. Again Dean replayed the short interaction in his head as he made his way to his lecture hall.

The memory caused a huge grin to play across his face. He realized he probably looked like an idiot grinning at nothing so he tried to control his expression. He took a quick look around his surroundings to see if anyone had caught him, and his stomach dropped when he realized he and Castiel were walking in the same direction. It was more than likely that the two were headed for the same English class. Dean could tell Castiel looked a little…what would you call it…maybe hesitant or uncomfortable?

Crap, had Dean been too obvious about his attraction to Castiel?

No, it wasn’t possible; Dean had been playing it cool. Well, he had actually been caught off guard and had only composed himself enough to make a quick introduction. It had been a while since he had tried to flirt with someone; usually he was a lot smoother.

But he hadn’t really expected to run into Castiel so soon, or _ever,_ really. ‘Hot Guy from Orientation with the Blue Eyes’ had become more of a fantasy after Dean had only encountered him for a brief moment. He had even gone home and fangirled to his younger brother, Sammy, about him.

But here he was, alive and in person, walking in awkward silence next to Dean who had been begging his dick to not so much as twitch in Castiel’s direction for fear of revealing to the other student that he had the biggest crush on an almost perfect stranger.

_Get it together Winchester._

By the grace of some God out there, Castiel turned to Dean and started talking to him again which thrilled him more than it should. He shook himself internally and tried to focus on what Cas was saying (and ignore the inexplicable pulse of excitement caused by the nice ring ‘Cas’ had to it).

Soon enough Dean started rambling on about his interest in engineering, prompted by Castiel’s question about his major…even though Dean was a criminal justice major—

and what the fuck was he even talking about?

He could hear himself going on and on about concrete walls, but didn’t know how to stop it. However, they were quickly approaching the lecture hall, and Dean knew their little stroll would soon be over so he made a strong effort to cut his rant off and ask Castiel what his major was. Dean figured that if he knew Castiel’s major, then he could more easily and “accidently” run into Castiel on campus if he walked by his department.

“I’m undeclared,” was Castiel’s answer. He passed by Dean who was holding the door open to the building. It gave him enough time to wipe the frown of disappointment off his face when he realized his plan to run into Castiel wouldn’t work.

When Dean stepped into the lecture hall as well, he had properly recovered. “Nice!” he said with a genuine smile.

By the time they found their seats in the classroom, Dean was feeling more himself. He would like to think that he was finally acclimatizing to Castiel, after the initial fluster caused by his gorgeous blue eyes and unruly black hair, Dean found himself hanging on Cas’ every word. Unlike Dean who had the habit of chatting away to fill silence, Castiel seemed to only talk as much as he felt necessary, or was interested enough to continue a conversation. That characteristic wasn’t something Dean was used to, what with his mom and brother always eager to _communicate._ It intrigued Dean to no end discovering what Castiel considered important enough to talk about.  

 

***

 

Castiel was in his communications class about to give his first two-minute speech, which he had definitely not forgotten about and was totally prepared for.

Actually, no. In a state of panic he had scribbled down an outline on a piece of notebook paper for a speech on “What I Learned During My First Week In College” while a classmate was delivering their own speech.

When Castiel’s name was finally called he had pretty much worked out what he was going to say so he wasn’t too nervous as he made his way to the front of the room. He did begin to worry though when the class erupted in mummers and he could swear one or two people were giggling. He turned to look at the professor for his cue to begin, but was severely shocked to find instead his high school guidance counselor, shooting him that all too familiar look of disappointment from underneath her blunt bangs.

“Oh, Castiel, what’s it going to take for you to try harder? So much wasted potential,” she lectured. “And honey, nudity is not appropriate for the classroom, we’ve been over this.”

Castiel looked down and sure enough, he was naked.

_Shit._

It didn’t take long to realize he was having a cliché nightmare so he forced himself to wake up. He lied awake in bed, looking through the slit in the curtains of the window directly above his head. With more effort than he thought possible, he reached up and slid the window open a few inches to let the cool breeze warm his flushed face.

His dream hadn’t been all that dramatic, just annoying enough to disrupt his sleep. He figured he had been obsessing so much about this new chapter in his life that it was bound to happen every once in a while.

He lay back down, adjusted his pillow and closed his eyes. He had learned a trick a long time ago to help him get back to sleep. He simply imagined a story in his head and played it out until he drifted off. For a long time when he was back in junior high, he liked to imagine himself attending Hogwarts. He didn’t picture anything fancy like fighting evil wizards. It was more like just being sorted into a house, attending Quidditch matches, or going to Diagon Alley.

As he got older his daydreams (or nightdreams?) had become even quainter. Lately his scenario of choice was him just sitting somewhere peaceful, maybe reading a book or sketching a landscape or just having coffee. The main theme was having a place for himself where he felt no immediate worries or pressing matters, just enjoying the day.

It was in just such a situation Castiel found himself when his dream resumed. He was on a pathway through his college campus on his way to the library (which for some reason in his dreamed looked like the Hall of Justice from the outside).

On the inside, it looked like the same old library though. He was making his way towards his favorite spot, a secluded corner next to a window and nearby outlet on the third floor. As he was getting off the elevator, he felt a shy hand touch his shoulder. Castiel turned around and saw Dean Winchester.

“Hey Cas,” he said with a huge smile. Again Castiel didn’t comment on the nickname (he secretly really liked it, he realized).

“Hello Dean, what are you doing here?”

Dean looked bashful and rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous manner, “We have plans remember? Our ‘study goup’…I already have the room booked,” he said again with a furious blush.

“Oh right. I mean, yes of course. Lead the way please.”

Dean seemed to regain some confidence as Castiel allowed him to lead him to the far end of the library’s third floor where the small classrooms were located for the use of study groups. He didn’t know why Dean was so fidgety, but it actually made him feel nervous too.

Dean slid his student ID card through the digital key lock of the classroom he reserved and held the door open for him to walk in first. Castiel walked into the small room and because it was windowless, kicked the round table in the darkness. The room couldn’t have been much larger than his room back at the apartment.

“Ouch,” he mumbled, more out of habit than pain because it hadn’t really hurt.

“Are you ok?” He heard Dean ask as the door clicked shut behind him. It was really freaking dark in the room, with nothing but the glow from the blue screen of a projector displayed on the back wall.

“Yes, I’m fine."

“Good.” Was all Dean said before he cupped his hands around Castiel’s face and leaned in close.

Even in the darkness he was staring at Dean with wide eyes, he could faintly make out the soft expression on his face.

He felt Dean’s breath tickle his lips so he slightly opened his mouth on impulse. Dean took it as an invitation to finally press his mouth to Cas’…

…and shit what the fuck was happening?

The kiss started off slow and timid, it made Castiel feel safe and scared all at the same time…and damn did it feel good, so he reciprocated the kiss, enjoying the sensation. But something in Castiel was burning and he needed more of Dean to help quench it.

He suddenly pressed forward, causing Dean to take a few steps back until he was pressed up against the door. The sudden roughness caused Dean to gasp in excitement and Castiel took initiative, sliding his tongue into Dean’s mouth. Dean seemed to approve of this development, an approval he showed by grabbing Cas' hips and pushing up into them with his own.

“Fuck,” Castiel whispered heavily. He could feel his erection growing as Dean continued to explore his mouth with his tongue and grind their hips together. “Dean.”

“Cas, let me taste you,” Dean growled in his ear, nipping all the way down to the sweet spot on his neck.

Castiel had lost the ability to speak so he nodded, giving Dean one more quick filthy kiss before releasing his grip from his hair.

Dean looped a finger through Cas' belt loop and guided him towards the small round table in the middle of the room. Castiel perched, body humming in anticipation, beads of sweat trickling down his temple.

He closed his eyes as Dean leaned in for another kiss. He could feel the other man’s hands start to unbutton his shirt. His dick twitched painfully in anticipation.

And suddenly everything stopped. “AHH!” Castiel opened his eyes and let out a shocked scream.

He was standing in his apartment kitchen, face to face with his cousin Gabriel who was giving him a look of amusement. Castiel looked around in disbelief, and lets fucking face it, a whole lot of disappointment.

Gabriel just looked at him and flung the student ID he had been holding in his hand, back at Castiel. “Really Cassie, a lanyard? You know only freshmen wear those.”

“SON OF A BITCH!” Cas shot awake again for a second time that night. And truth be told, this last dream was way more of a traumatic experience than the first had been.

He grabbed his phone from his night stand to check the time. It was 3:22 in the morning. He looked down and realized with equal parts relief and frustration that his penis wasn’t at full attention (definitely thanks to Gabriel’s cameo appearance at the end there).

For better or worse Castiel was tired enough from his restless night that he was still half asleep, so with nothing more than a final grunt of annoyance, he slammed his head back into his pillow and was out in an instant.

Several hours later he woke to find it was morning, perhaps a bit too early for a Saturday, but he decided to get up anyway. He felt really groggy and a bit miserable for some reason. He couldn’t remember what he had dreamed the night before (never usually did) but he did vaguely recall waking up a few times which probably explained his foul mood.

He padded his way to the kitchen and started the coffee maker. He also set to work frying up some eggs and throwing some veggies into the skillet as well.

“Ugh, make enough for the class, please,” called a groggy voice from the couch. Gabriel stuck his head up from where he was laying. “Good morning Cassie,” he called as usual, dragging himself up and heading toward the kitchen.

“Gabriel, I’m sorry if I woke you, I didn’t know you were there.”

“No worries, I got home from my night shift at the supermarket and fell asleep watching the new episode of Flash on my phone,” his cousin responded, retrieving a mug full of coffee and settling down at the kitchen table. “I had to know who the guy in the iron mask is.”

“No spoilers!” Castiel warned as he plated the two omelets and handed one to his cousin, sitting down opposite of him.

Before he took his first bite he looked up at Gabriel and knitted his brows in confusion.

“What’s wrong Cassie? You make your coffee too strong cuz it looks like you have to do a morning poo.”

“Gabriel, I’m not typically a violent man…and I don’t think this has anything to do with spoilers…but why on Earth do I have a really strong urge to clock you in the face?” He asked, genuinely confused.

Gabriel simply barked a laugh and shot Castiel his best shit eating grin. “Ha! Well you’re not much of a morning person, but whatever the reason be…get in line buddy.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little something to wet the whistle!
> 
> While I will be switching POVs, I don't plan on always mirroring chapters like I did at the beginning of this one. I just couldn't help make Dean gush, I love it when he's the one pining and Cas is somewhat clueless.
> 
> In case you haven't figured it out yet, this fic will probably be a shameless collection of my favorite romcom cliches.


	3. Cookie Karma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just when Castiel was getting the hang of things.

The days were finally getting colder, which made Castiel very happy as he could now drink hot coffee throughout the day without having a heat stroke.  And because he had just gotten his latest philosophy quiz back with an improved score from the previous one, he decided it called for a celebration with a coffee the size of his head.  (If he had broken the grading curve, he’d spring for an equally huge cookie but, eh, maybe next time).

In ten short minutes he was leaving the campus java shop, both coffee and cookie in hand (because he deserved it, dammit).  He took a satisfying bite and chased it down with a swig of coffee before heading to his only other class of the day, which was Intro to Geology.

He was on his way there via his normal route when he saw some angry looking people handing out flyers and asking for donations.  Out of habit, he course corrected his direction to go the long way around, through a building used mainly for administrative purposes like submitting paper work or paying tuition.  It was in one of those hallways where he came across a huge board covered in flyers, forms and announcements.

Castiel stopped to sip his coffee and devour his cookie (his sweet tooth was a direct influence of his cousin’s) and took a second to glance at all of the colorful papers inviting him to attend lectures, film screenings, career fairs, and pledge to fraternities.  This was as good an opportunity as any to find something new to try.

His eyes zoned in on a flyer for a production of the _Vagina Monologues_ taking place in two weeks, so he reached his hand out and plucked one of the info tabs from the sheet, stuffing it into his back pocket.  He was about to be on his way when the word “Internships” caught his eye.

He remembered what his cousin had advised him that day of orientation.  Before he could talk himself out of it, he took his phone out and snapped a quick picture of the flyer to look at later so he wouldn’t be late to class.  After pocketing his phone again, he continued on his way to lecture.

He was now half way through his second week of college, and Castiel was starting to feel more comfortable.  He was actually looking forward to his classes now.  They weren’t too much harder than high school, aside from the huge difference that you were accountable for everything yourself.  Most professors couldn’t care less if you showed up for class, and they certainly weren’t going to get on your ass about every little assignment.  It was all on the student to apply themselves so that they could get a passing score.  And maybe it was just Castiel’s personality, but he really appreciated the space and liberty that came with it all.

By the time Castiel got to his next class he was starting to feel the energizing effects of his coffee and was eager to finish lecture so he could go meet up with Dean at the library (why that made his nipples hard he did not know, so he just blamed it on the AC).

He figured he could consider Dean a friend now.  They had the same morning schedule on Mondays and Wednesdays.  They took the same bus to school and would walk to English together (because it would be rude otherwise, right?).  Naturally that had developed into becoming discussion partners during class, which had prompted them to exchange contact info.  They now had a rough draft due soon and had agreed to meet up to work on it after Castiel’s geology class.

Geology had been pretty basic stuff so far.  They had talked about how continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics had come about, with some basic chemistry thrown in to understand minerals.  Now, they were finally getting to the different rock types.

Castiel took his usual seat with his lab partner, Kevin Tran, who was also taking the class as a General Education requirement.  He took a second to glance over at a desk tucked into a corner and waved at Jo.  His Orientation Leader had ended up being the TA for this class.  She had approached him the first day of lecture with a firm pat on the back and a warm smile.  “Good to see you have some sense in you,” she had praised. 

Castiel had not expected to see Jo, and at first couldn’t help thinking that it would be embarrassing if he sucked at this subject and let her down somehow.  But he quickly realized she wasn’t the type to put that kind of pressure on him, it’s not like she paid much more attention to Cas than the rest of the class.  Jo seemed familiar with most students by then and their interactions didn’t go much beyond school stuff.

Everyone was settling down and soon enough their instructor, Professor Singer, came through the door.  The professor had instructed them on their first day that the geology department was less formal.  All of the instructors preferred to be on first-name basis with their students, so the professor had asked everyone to call him Bobby. 

Castiel hadn’t realized, but he had some inherent aversion to disregarding seniority all together, so he took to calling his instructor ‘Professor Bobby’ as some sort of compromise.  Other than the first initial raised eyebrow, his instructor made no comment or objection to being addressed in that way, so it stuck.

Professor Bobby came in and quickly brought up the day’s lecture on the projector, which announced to the class that they were beginning the rock unit that week, starting with igneous.  Even though the PowerPoint was always posted online anyway, Castiel made sure to take notes on as much as he could, but not because he was extra cautious.   He knew himself well enough to admit that even though he had every intention during class, later on he would definitely not take the time to sit down and carefully read through the lecture on his own.

In fact he had also sabotaged himself before, thinking:  “I don’t need to write this down, I’ll remember it for sure,” only to have no recollection of that material during the following lecture’s quiz.  So with lessons learned, Castiel spent the hour dutifully taking notes on the differences between intrusive and extrusive rocks.

“By the way class…,” Professor Bobby called out as everyone began to pack up when lecture had ended.  “I’m sure you’ve all read the syllabus cover to cover,” he coughed, “but don’t forget that we have a camping trip that counts for course credit in this class.  We’re going to be going up to the mountains to get up close and personal with some extinct magma chambers.”

Castiel couldn’t help but feel a few tendrils of anxiety creeping up because he had indeed not read the syllabus cover to cover, and he had never been camping before either.

“We’ll be meeting in parking lot 2 at 7am next Friday.  We will camp for two nights and be back Sunday morning.  It won’t be nothing too extreme but we want to get out there before it gets too cold.  Get into food groups to plan provisions and I’ll see ya then,” Professor Bobby concluded with a final nod to the class as he left the room.

“Castiel, do you want to be in a food group with me,” his lab partner, Kevin, asked as he threw his backpack over his shoulders.  Both students then began heading for the door.

“Sure, I have to go meet up with a study group right now but I’ll message you later tonight to figure out the details.”

“Cool, talk to you then!” Kevin waved as he headed in the opposite direction.

Castiel had started to really get along with Kevin.  He remembered walking into geology the first day and recognizing that same hint of small panic in Kevin’s eyes that Castiel had felt himself.  It had even worked in calming his nerves seeing that he wasn’t the only one way out of his element.  He’d approached Kevin’s table and had just sat down without saying too much of anything, really.  It wasn’t until their first actual lab, which took place three days later on Friday morning, when they finally got past the introductions and the small talk. 

As Castiel exited the lecture hall he began to feel more open to the idea of spending the weekend camping when he figured he would at least have Kevin to commiserate with on the trip.

He walked into the library and went to wait for the elevator.  He could probably take the stairs to the third floor, but the building wasn’t on fire so he saw no immediate need to do something so unpleasant.  As he waited he heard the 8-bit tune of the “Song of Storms” playing from his back pocket so he reached into it to retrieve his phone.

“Hello Gabriel.”  

His cousin was calling to see if he could borrow Castiel’s fancy digital camera, which he had received on his birthday a few years back.  His parents had noticed him spending some time with a sketch pad and figured they would embrace his artsy side by getting him a high-end camera.  Castiel had appreciated the gesture, but photography didn’t really interest him too much.  He had graciously accepted the camera though (it had come in handy on his Disneyland trip).

“I need it to shoot some pics of my dishes for my presentation next week.  Can I use it, pretty please?” Gabe asked.

“Well that all depends.  Do I get to eat the food?” Castiel questioned back.

“Sure.”

“Then sure.”

“Thanks Cassie!”  Gabriel cheered over the phone.

“Oh, Gabe, speaking of lending things, do you have a tent…and a sleeping bag…and basically everything one might need when going camping?” Castiel asked as the elevator doors finally opened.  There was a librarian with a cart inside, so Castiel stood patiently to one side to let him pass.

“Afraid not, never been camping.”

“Well, that’s the problem, I’ve never been camping either.”

“You’ve never been camping?”  Castiel heard a different voice ask incredulously.  This time it was coming from behind him.  He also felt a light touch on his shoulder which made him jump.

“Gabe, I’ll see you later,” he quickly mumbled and hung up on his cousin, turning to meet Dean’s look of surprise.

“No, I’ve never had occasion,” Castiel replied simply as both made their way onto the elevator.  Dean reached over and hit the number for the third floor.  “Thank you for agreeing to peer-edit my English paper, Dean.”

“No problem.  I do you, you do me,” Dean replied.

Castiel tilted his head in amusement at the unintentional double entendre.  Dean didn’t seem to notice so Castiel let it slide, “Fair enough,” he smiled to himself.

The doors to the elevator opened and they stepped out onto the third floor of the library.  Dean lowered his voice and leaned in to whisper so he wouldn’t disturb the people studying nearby, “I went ahead and booked one of the study rooms already.”

“What.” Castiel almost stopped in his tracks.  He couldn’t help but feel a sense of de ja vu (among other distracting sensations going on inside him).  And had someone cranked the AC up?

“The room, it’s this way,” Dean assured him and led him to the far end of the third floor.  When he used his student ID to unlock the door and hold it open for Castiel to walk through, Cas finally made the connection and remembered.

Sudden flashbacks of the two of them in compromising positions assaulted Cas’ mind.  Holy crap how had he forgotten _that._   And how was this happening now?  Castiel started getting goosebumps as he realized his dream was being scary accurate.  “Damn, I’m psychic,” he mumbled.

“You Say something?”

“Nothing,” his voice cracked.

His heart started beating at an alarming rate so he hurried inside, passed Dean, in the hopes that he wouldn’t see his heated cheeks.

He sighed a breathe of relief when he got inside the room and noticed that it was actually well lit, the lights were on already and there were two large windows on the back wall letting the sun shine through.

“Are you ok?” He heard Dean ask as the door clicked behind him.

The butterflies in his stomach came back in full force from hearing Dean quote his dream verbatim.

“Yes, why?  Um…why do you ask?”  Castiel stuttered.  He decided to try and draw attention away from his jitteriness by pulling things out of his backpack.  It also helped in putting distance between them.  In his haste though, Castiel kicked the round table in the middle of the room.

_Shit._

“No, nothing, you just seem…distracted,” Dean mentioned with one final look of concern.  He took a step towards Cas but then hesitated, and instead began unpacking his backpack as well.

“Wait Cas, you still haven’t explained yourself,” Dean broke the silence a few seconds later.  Luckily, Castiel was looking down at the time, otherwise his wide eyes would have given away his small moment of panic before Dean continued, “You’ve _never_ been camping before? Like, Ever?”

Castiel felt himself relax, releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding.  Next to sharing the fact that he’d had a sex dream about his classmate, admitting he’d never gone camping was a welcomed alternative.

“No, my parents aren’t really the camping type,” he answered simply.

“You’ve never even, like, got to pitch a tent in your backyard?” Dean questioned in surprise.

“Well, I’ve definitely pinched a tent before,” Castiel couldn’t help cashing in on the euphemism, “But in no one’s backyard, no,” he grinned.

“Well that’s a damn shame,” Dean added, picking up on the joke.  Castiel was glad that they were falling back into their usual rhythm, but if he couldn’t quite make eye contact yet, he hoped Dean didn’t notice.

“And just so you know, I do have a whole bunch of camping stuff you can borrow.  You can come by my house this Friday to check it out if you want,” he offered.

“That’d be great Dean, thank you.”

“No problem.  Now let’s get to work on your train wreck of a paper.  All of your paragraphs are like one crazy long, run-on sentence.  You realize that?”  Dean chided.

“It’s not an issue if you have proper punctuation, Dean.”  Cas defended.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that, Hemingway.”

Castiel opened his mouth to defend himself but he was cut off by a text alert, “Saved by the bell, Winchester.”

He reached into his back pocket again to retrieve his mobile and set it on the table in front of him to read the text.  It was a text from Kevin letting him know that he had a quiz due at midnight.  He was requesting to reschedule their food group preparations for the following day during lab.  Castiel typed out a quick _‘no problem’_ with the appropriate thumbs up emoji.

“You dropped something, Cas,” Dean said as he leaned down to pick up a small scrap of paper that Castiel had pulled out of his back pocket along with his phone.  Dean wasn’t the nosy type, but he saw the word ‘ _Vagina’_ and couldn’t help holding up the strip of paper in order to exam it more closely.  He smiled when he figured out what it was.  “Oh, cool you’re going to go see the _Vagina Monologues_?”

Castiel quickly thought to himself, _Be brave, if you don’t start making connections with other people, the only friend you’ll have left will be your cousin._

“Do you want to come with me?”  Castiel asked suddenly.

Dean looked surprised like he wasn’t expecting to be invited at all which made Castiel lose some confidence.  “What like just the two of us?”

_Abort mission, abort.  I’ve gone too far now he thinks I’m flirting.  Which I’m not, right?  Either way, he can’t think that.  Shit._

Castiel needed some way to reign in the situation, and looked down at his phone to earn a few more seconds before having to respond.  The text he had just sent was still displayed and it gave him an idea.

“Well, Kevin would be going too,” he blurted out before he could think it through.

“Kevin?”  Dean asked in a slightly quieter tone, the atmosphere between them felt heavy suddenly.

“Yes, he’s my—“

“Your date.”  Dean finished the sentence for him, nodding his head as understanding seemed to reach him.  “Cas, are you asking me to be a third wheel on your date to act as a cockblock?  This Kevin guy is so bad that you can’t just let him down easy?”

Castiel’s mind went blank.  He didn’t know what to say at all, to _whatever_ was going on here, so he tried for the truth.  “No, you see Kevin is my lab partner,” he paused to decide what to say next, but again Dean interjected.

“Oh, I think I get it.  Did you invite him as friends but he thought it was a date?”  Castiel’s eyes went wide.  How could Dean be so intuitive and so clueless all at the same time?  Nevertheless, he didn’t interrupt because the mood between them was becoming slightly less tense so Castiel let Dean carry on.

 “I guess it’d really suck to dump your lab partner flat out.  Maybe if I tag along he’ll see it’s like a group thing and back off.”  He seemed to think about it for another second, “Alright Cas, I’ll do it!” he concluded with a grin.

Castiel knew this had gone in a really wrong direction, but he hesitated in correcting Dean for fear of embarrassing him.  “Thank you, it means a lot that you would want to help,” he beat around the bush.

“Nah, don’t worry about it.  I got you Cas,” Dean said with a sincere smile this time.

_Shit._   Now there was no way Castiel could back down.  “Awesome, its two weeks from today,” he said weakly.

 

***

 

As soon as Castiel got home he barged into Gabriel’s room to confess everything.  His study session with Dean had gone normally in the end, but things felt different somehow…or maybe they didn’t.  He needed an outsider’s opinion.  He explained the weird group plans to see the _Vagina Monologues_ and the sex dream, but of course Gabriel focused on the NSFW part. 

“A _sex_ dream? You?” Gabriel looked up from his laptop to make sure he had heard right.  He gave his cousin a questioning look, “Didn’t think you had it in ya Cassie, but good for you.”

 “Well there was no actual sex involved,” he said.

“Then I have to ask, what _was_ involved?  Because your little, innocent virgin brain might have misunderstood.  It might not even count.”

“Sure I’ll share,” Castiel shrugged as he picked up a misshapen teddy bear from Gabriel’s bed.  “There was tongue, both his and mine,” he gestured like he was about to French the stuffed animal.   “And there was groping _and_ moaning.”  He made a few obscene noises for good measure.  “Oh and a lot of _this_ going on,” Castiel positioned the bear so that it was just out of reach of his pelvic thrusts, all while keeping a straight face like he was giving a CPR demonstration. “Right.  But it was over the clothes.  Also—“

“Okay!  It counts! It counts, down tiger.  Jeez,” Gabriel cut him off, snatching the teddy bear from his pervert of a cousin and smacking him over the head with it a few times.  “You didn’t have to defile Loki like a dog in heat to get your point across, you animal.”  Gabriel rubbed his eyes to get the image out of his head and whispered an apology into Loki the Bear’s ear before placing him back on his pillow.  Safely out of harm’s way.

“Right, sorry Loki,” Castiel sighed as he slid down to lie on the floor, “Consent is important.”

“No means no!” cried Gabriel.

“Anyways Gabe,” continued Cas in a contemplative tone, “It was just a dream, right?  I mean I’d never really considered Dean romantically.”

“Just making sure here, but you are gay right?” Gabriel asked, realizing he’d never had this conversation with his cousin before.

Cas furrowed his brow and exhaled deeply, “Pretty much yeah, the only exception I can think of is Viola Davis for some reason.”

“Don’t need a reason.  Confidence is sexy.  And who doesn’t have a courtroom fantasy?  Judge Judy gets me going,” Gabriel nodded.

Castiel made no comment as he was busy in thought.  After a while he heard his cousin resume working on his presentation as the seconds slipped away in silence.  He didn’t want to be the type of person who wasted time and effort on a crush that didn’t really mean anything, because, man, had he been there before.  It was important for him to think things through as he lay there staring at the ceiling.

“I guess if I’m being really honest with myself,” he began, “I’m not romantically interested in Dean because I never thought he would be romantically interested in me….if that makes sense.”

Gabriel stopped typing and looked up at the ceiling as well, trying to catch Castiel’s train of thought.  “But why wouldn’t he be interested?  You’re a Novak, Cassie.  We’re all grade-A material.”

“Well upon first meeting, I thought Dean was like one of those guys who peaked in high school and was the type to make fun of the quiet kids.”

“Kids like you,” Gabriel added.

“Well…yeah.”

“But he’s not?”

“No, not at all, as far as I can tell.  He’s been a good friend, and I’ve only known him for a little over a week,” Castiel responded, dragging himself up to a sitting position so he could catch Gabriel’s expression.

“Good or bad, a week is a short time to have such a definitive opinion of someone, Cassie.  Not very open-minded of you,” his cousin pointed out.

“I know right, must be a weird defense mechanism against attractive people.  Like to defend from rejection,” Castiel conceded.

“Wait, he’s hot?  How hot?”  Gabriel asked, slowly raising his brow in surprise, “This whole time I thought we were talking about an ugly duckling that you were just being shallow about.  But if he’s hot, then all this wallowing makes sense.”

“He is very objectively handsome,” Castiel stated simply.  He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and moved to sit on Gabriel’s bed.  In a few seconds he pulled up Dean’s Facebook page and accessed his profile pic.  He then handed his phone to Gabriel who then let out a long whistle.

“Damn Cassie, no wonder you thought the guy was an asshole.”

“Right!”

“Yeah, he’s like the male version of Viola Davis.  Regardless of sexual orientation, if ya could, ya would,” he said, swiping through Dean’s various pictures.

“So we’re in agreement.  The dream was just a manifestation of logical physical attraction.  It doesn’t mean I have romantic feelings,” Castiel concluded.

“It could be.  I might certainly have a dream or two now myself,” Gabriel quipped.  “But why exactly would it be so bad if you caught feelings for him?”

“Because I’d be getting my hopes up for nothing, he’s probably just a nice guy to everyone.  We study English together, it doesn’t mean he’s into me or ever will be.  Besides I don’t even know if he’s gay.  And I don’t even know if I like him like that.  I just keep going around in circles.”

“True, true, truetruetrue,” Gabriel nodded in agreement.  “You just sound really confused.  My advice would be to take a step back and chill out.  No sense in freaking out about something you don’t even know exists.”

“You’re absolutely right, Gabriel.  I’m overthinking this,” Castiel stated firmly.  He got up from Gabriel’s bed and headed for the door, “It was just a dream.  Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out how to convince Kevin Tran to go on a pretend date with me and Dean.  The universe is punishing me for eating that cookie earlier.  I didn’t deserve it and now I’m being punished, I know it,” he ranted more to himself than to his cousin.

“Oh yeah the weird group outing, can I go?” Gabriel called out as Cas was leaving the room.

“Absolutely not.”  Castiel called over his shoulder and sternly closed the door behind him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Sunday! I hope my long-winded sentences make sense. Next Chapter will definitely have some Dean perspective, and the camping trip! :)
> 
> *Loki the Bear was not harmed in the making of this chapter*


	4. Dean's is Determined Cas is Convincing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter in which Dean declares Kevin his rival and Cas asks Kevin on a date (kinda).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had originally planned this chapter to be the camping trip, but it got away from me. It was also really, really long. Therefore I split it up where I thought it made the most sense and am posting the first (shorter) part today.  
> (Please forgive me if there are any typos, I swear I checked)
> 
> :)

Dean was sitting at the dining room table with his laptop and notes spread out in front of him.  Normally he’d be listening to the Star Wars’ soundtrack while working (it made homework feel like a battle to be won), but he was keeping an ear out for the oven timer to let him know when the apple pie was ready.  His Friday mornings were usually quiet since his mother worked at the hospital and Sammy was in school, meanwhile Dean had no classes.  He was taking the opportunity to practice the secret Winchester Pie recipe while editing his English paper.

He took his eyes away from the word document on his computer to take another glance at the hard-copy Cas had marked up during their study session the day before.  He looked at the red ink with a smile of amusement as he remembered how blunt Cas had been about his _too_ straightforward way of writing.

“Dean, you write the way my mother talks to people when she thinks they can’t speak English:  it’s insulting to the audience,” had been Castiel’s exact words after reading Dean’s paper.

He couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the memory.  The whole study session encounter had been on Dean’s mind ever since.  When they had gotten the assignment to write the paper for English, instead of feeling burdened like most of the class, Dean had screamed internally with joy.  He finally had a pretense for hanging out with Cas outside of class.

The study session itself was kind of a roller coaster.  It had been Dean’s intention to use the time to have a real conversation with Cas, not about majors or school.  So Dean had set a goal for himself:  get Castiel to rant passionately about something; a _nything_.  Literally, Dean would have happily sat attentively through a 15 minute speech on any random topic if it had meant getting to know what Cas was enthusiastic about.  He had even taken an extra precaution and gotten a private study room so as not to disturb other students with their chatter.  Unfortunately it hadn’t turned out that way.

Things had seemingly started off so well, Dean was teasing Cas about never having gone camping.  Castiel was flirting back with his dirty jokes (that _was_ flirting, right?).  Either way, they were enjoying each other’s company; at least Dean had thought so. 

Thinking back now, he could pinpoint where things had gotten off track.  Castiel had invited him to go watch a play and Dean’s heart had both jumped for joy and cramped from the shock.  It wasn’t exactly according to plan but it was an awesome development.  He hadn’t had very long to celebrate though, because he was quickly informed about Kevin…the lab partner.

Dean hated himself a little bit but he couldn’t help pulling up his web browser and bringing up Kevin Tran’s Facebook page.  Again.  He knew it was the right guy because they had one friend in common:  Cas.  He could see why Castiel would have a hard time turning Kevin down; he had these big adorable puppy dog eyes and a gentle smile in every picture. 

 _You ain’t fooling me buddy.  It’s the harmless looking guys you have to watch out for,_ Dean thought, glaring at a photo of Kevin hugging his mom after having completed a charity run.

He had just closed his web browser with one final death glare when the doorbell rang.

“Here, Dean.  And you better be grateful because I’m about to be late for lab.”

“Nice to see you too Jo,” Dean said sarcastically as he stepped to the side to let her in.  She was carrying a large cardboard box with camping gear in it, marked “Idjit” on the side.

“That should be all of the gear you left at our house from the last trip,” Jo huffed as she dropped the box by a side table in the living room. 

Their families were long-time friends and would often spend some time camping out by the lake that was a few hours away from town.  It had been some time since their last outing though, and Dean felt a little guilty for letting so much time go by.  It seemed like everyone was busy doing their own thing lately that they had lost touch.

“Thanks Jo,” Dean said more sincerely, “How’s Ellen, by the way, haven’t seen you all in a while.”

Jo straightened up and gave Dean a quick smile, “Mom’s good.  She did tell me to tell you that our house isn’t ‘Winchester’s Personal Storage’ though…and she also mentioned that you guys should come by more often.”

“To pick up the crap I leave behind?” Dean laughed.

“Exactly,” she grinned.  “But may I ask why the heck you needed this stuff _today_?  Are you running away from home in a baby fit of rage, _again_?”

“Ha, ha,” Dean rolled his eyes.  “If you must know, my friend Cas, is going camping for the first time, but doesn’t have any gear, so I offered to lend him some.  He’s coming over today to get it.”

“’Him’?  When you mentioned a ‘Cas,’ I assumed it was short for like Cassandra or something.”

“Nope, he’s a dude.  A very sarcastic, hot dude,” Dean gushed.  “’Cas’ is short for Castiel.”

All at once, Jo’s eyes went wide and a huge grin was plastered across her face.  “Holy crap, he’s in the geology class I TA for!  It has to be the same guy; I mean who else has a name like that?  He’s kinda quiet with the messy Harry Potter hair and crazy blue eyes, right?”

“Prisoner of Azkaban?”

“Yes!”

“Yup, that’s him,” Dean confirmed, and as soon as he did, Jo socked him in the arm.  “Ah! What was that for?”

“That’s for the indecent intentions, which I’m sure you have, to corrupt him.  I am a momma bear when it comes to the students in my class, Winchester.  Plus, he was one of my freshmen at orientation.  I saw him all wide-eyed and helpless like a baby deer and I raised him into the confident young man he is today,” she stated proudly, and socked Dean in the other arm for good measure.

“Ouch! Stop that!”  Dean said, swatting her hand away and rubbing both of his arms furiously.  “Would you calm down, you’re exaggerating.  I had orientation too, and you so-called “leaders” just gave us a campus tour—Ah! Okay! Okay.”  Dean drew his hands up in surrender before Jo could punch him again.

“That’s what I thought.  Now don’t you dare be an asshole to that kid Dean, or I will find you.  And I will kill you,” she threatened.

Dean took a step back so he was out of reach before responding, “Ok, _Liam Neeson_.  Can I say a few things?”

Jo stared at him but eventually nodded.

“First of all, don’t call him a kid, it makes me feel like a creeper and you’re only one year older.  Also, you obviously don’t know Cas very well because he is as snarky as they come,” Dean couldn’t help but crack a smile, “He can handle assholes.  And speaking of assholes—“

“—Ew Dean, let me stop you right there.  I don’t need any dirty details,” Jo interrupted, scrunching her face up, obviously grossed-out.

“Really, Jo…can we please continue this conversation like adults?”

“…Ok, sure.  You were saying?”

 Dean cleared his throat before continuing, “If you’re so protective of your students, why’d you let Cas end up as lab partners with a _cootie-covered_ _predator_ like Kevin Tran?!”

Jo’s scolding charade finally broke when she heard that last bit of Dean’s rant and broke down in loud obnoxious laughter.  It was a good two minutes later when she finally composed herself enough to give Dean a look of disbelief.  When she saw his confused face she stood up straight and quieted down.

“Oh man, you’re not kidding, huh?  Dean, have you ever _met_ Kevin Tran?  I herded freshmen all summer and never did I come across one as benign as him.  What’s your beef with him?” she asked shaking her head.

“Well I’m not going to narc to the TA, but without giving too many details, I have a strong reason to believe that Kevin is making advances towards Cas,” Dean explained with as much severity as he could.

“Hmm, well I couldn’t tell you since I’m not supposed to get too chummy with the students as their TA, but if you want I can definitely keep an eye out during the camping trip.”

“Wait what?  You’re going on the trip with Cas?  _And Kevin?!_ ”

“Of course Dean,” Jo said plainly as she headed for the door.  “The camping trip Castiel is going on is the one for geology.  Every semester we take a trip to the granodiorites up in the mountains.”

Dean felt dumb for not having figured it out sooner, but his sense of stupidity was quickly overcome with one of dread.  What if things between Cas and Kevin changed on the trip?  What if they bond over the campfire and end up sharing a tent ( _Dean’s_ tent). 

_What a kick in the crotch._

Dean had to think fast.  He had one week to try and make a strong impression on Cas so that he wouldn’t forget him when he went away on a romantic weekend trip with _Kevin_ (or geology trip or whatever).  He would start today.  Cas had promised to stop by Dean’s house after his lab, and Dean was going to win him over.

With a new sense of determination Dean turned around and stalked right back into the kitchen to make sure there would be fresh coffee when Cas got there.  He knew Castiel loved coffee, every time he’d seen him that week Cas’d have a huge cup clasped in his hands.  “Let’s see Kevin be that thoughtful,” he said to himself.

Jo just stared at Dean’s back as he retreated into the kitchen, seemingly forgetting he had company after blanking out for several seconds and leaving the room without a word.  “I guess I’ll show myself out!” she called as she headed out the door. 

She heard a distant “Thank you!” as the door closed behind her.

 

***

 

Castile sat at his lab table as more students trickled into the room.  He was on his laptop working on a personal statement to submit along with his application to the “Scholars Internship Program.”  He had finally gotten around to taking a look at the flyer he’d taken a picture of the other day.  The program actually seemed decent and was open to all majors (including undeclared).  If Cas were chosen, he would be part of a cohort of 10 students being placed in various types of professional offices to gain “valuable and marketable experience.”

He let out a long breath.  The application was time-consuming, and Castiel found himself wanting to forget the whole thing after filling in each redundant question.  He could literally feel his motivation drain when he read the check-off list and saw that he needed to provide a personal statement.  What was he supposed to talk about?  He was born in a small town, graduated high school by sitting in a classroom for four years and ended up in college without a real goal in mind.

In a huff of frustration he shut his laptop and let his forehead fall onto the cool, black lab table with a quiet _thump_. 

_Fuck it; I’ll do the rest later._

“Rough morning huh?  Here maybe this will help.”  Castiel hadn’t heard Kevin come in, so his head shot up to greet him, when he was met with the large coffee Kevin had just placed in front of him, steam coming out of the open lid.  Castiel couldn’t help but make googly eyes at it which made Kevin laugh.

“They messed up my order this morning and gave me the botched coffee for free, as thanks for ‘not being a dick about it’,” Kevin quoted his barista.  He saw his lab partner give the coffee a skeptical look and added for clarification, “Oh, it’s not ‘botched’ as in toxic.  They put milk in it and I’m lactose intolerant,” he said and handed Castiel some sugars and creamers he had stuck in his pocket.

“Kevin, you have ruined all other lab partners for me,” Cas thanked him as he dumped in some sugar and creamer and took his first satisfying sip.

By the time Professor Bobby came in, Castiel had finished his coffee and was in a better mood.  He opened up his notebook and began taking notes for the day’s lab.

“Today is going to be an easy one,” the professor explained.  “You have two different samples of granite in front of you.  Both of these we will see on our trip next Friday so take a good look, explain some textures and colors you see, and of course, the minerals,” he said holding up his two samples for the class to see.  “Once you think you’ve got it, take some time to look at the map of the area, we don’t want you getting lost.”  He took a moment to make eye-contact with a few students who were cause for concern.  “Finally, take the rest of the period to talk to your food groups if you need to.  Just make sure to turn in a write-up of your rock descriptions by next week.  Attach it as a pdf in an email, on account of we won’t be in class,” the professor ended with an implied _duh_.

Having heard all of the instructions, the students set to work.  Each group had two large hand samples of the granites.  Kevin handed Castiel one of the rocks and a hand lens that magnified the minerals so they could identify them.

It was only their second lab working together, but the two already had a good dynamic as partners.  Kevin was the intellectual type, book smart in a way that made Castiel wonder if he would have turned out like that had he gone to a bigger school with more offered AP classes than just Spanish.

Therefore Kevin was a good partner to have as he could easily memorize information and important terms.  He was not, however, confident in his own interpretations and the fact that geology wasn’t an exact science made him nervous.  That’s where Castiel came in, he felt good about his observations, always having had a keen eye.  (When you don’t talk too much you tend to be a good observer).

“Ok, the majority of these minerals have no clear-cut sides and are shiny and transparent,” he said aloud to Kevin who wrote it down.

“Must be quartz:  no cleavage, non-metallic, shiny luster, colorless,” he translated into proper terms.  Castiel just nodded along as most of that sounded right to him from what he could remember.

They worked through both the samples in the same way, noting down the characteristics and abundances. 

While they were both huddled over the map for the next task, Castiel was trying to figure out how to invite his lab partner to go see the play with him and Dean.  He couldn’t think of anything good, but thankfully Kevin gave him an opening (for lack of a better word).

“Wow, you think we’ll be allowed to go into the caves?”  Kevin asked innocently enough as he examined the map of their field trip area.

“Well I don’t know about those caves, but what about _lady caves_?”  Castiel’s smart mouth blurted out before he could help it.

Kevin didn’t seem to understand, and stared at his lab partner before hesitantly asking for clarification.

“Vaginas.”

Kevin nodded once, “Right, just making sure.  I hope I don’t regret asking this, but what about… _them_?”

Even though Castiel was feeling nervous about getting his lab partner to accept his invite, he couldn’t help but let Kevin sweat a bit more before answering.  He then phrased his next sentence carefully to avoid any misunderstandings, like what had happened with Dean.  He figured things would go smoother if he didn’t have to try to keep up more than one accidental lie.

“Have you heard of _The Vagina Monologues_?”

“No.”

“Well it’s a play of short skits about different women and their…ah sexuality, I guess you could say.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll sing along,” Castiel hoped he was selling this right.  Maybe he should have rehearsed.

Poor Keven at least seemed to be trying to make sense of what Cas was saying.  When he didn’t say anything, Castiel decided to power on.

“Anyways, they are passing it here on campus in about two weeks.  My friend, Dean, and I are going and I was wondering if you wanted to come too?” there he said it.

“Can I just make sure, this isn’t like a set up or anything?  You’re not going to cancel at the last minute so that this ‘Dean’ guy and I end up on blind date, type thing, right?  Because I actually have a girlfriend—“

“No, no!”  Castiel stopped him.  That was exactly the kind of misunderstanding he did NOT want to happen.  “Look Kevin, I’m going to be honest,” he started to make-up as he went along, “I, uh…I invited Dean to go, but he thinks it’s a date.”  He decided not to mention who the date was supposed to be between.  “And I consider you a friend, and I would really appreciate it if you’d do me a favor and come with us.”

“So that he doesn’t get the wrong idea?”

“Exactly, things kind of got out of hand and now I have to do some damage control.  Can you help me out?”  Castiel asked and watched anxiously as Kevin took a second to think about it.

“I appreciate you being honest with me, its awkward going into a situation like that blind-sided,” he said with a small smile.

“So, you’ll do it?” Castiel asked hopefully.

“How about this, we have our camping trip next Friday.  If you convince your chef cousin to prepare your half of the food group meals, then I’m in.”

“Consider it done; just email me your food allergies.  And thanks Kevin, it won’t be that bad; I promise.”

“Right, well, what are friends for…” Kevin responded, mulling things over.  “So tell me more about the _lady caves_ and what kinds of things they’re going to talk about.  Just to know what I’m getting myself into.”

“Well, I’ve never seen it myself, only heard about it from when my cousin saw it.   I don’t think I can do it justice if I tried to summarize it for you.  Just know that it’s a rewarding experience, and be prepared to learn a lot.” Castiel assured Kevin.  “Also, I couldn’t help but notice that we’ve been talking about _The Vagina Monologues_ and you have yet to say ‘vagina’.” He patted him on the back a few times to show both encouragement and support.  “Am I correct in assuming that the word makes you uncomfortable?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“But you said you had a girlfriend.”

“I might have lied to make sure you weren’t setting me up on a blind date.”

“I see.  Well, be prepared to get over your fear of vaginas too, looks like the experience will be beneficial in more ways than one.”  If nothing else, it was going to be an interesting night.  “It’s in two weeks,” Castiel made sure to mention.


	5. Squirrel Perv

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Cas spend the afternoon together. One is trying so hard, the other is too fucking clueless. Both adorable morons.

Dean pulled his pie out of the oven and his mouth instantly started drooling when the sweet, sweet smell hit his nostrils.  It was golden, and it was gorgeous.  He set it down on the counter to cool, and stepped away from it so he wouldn’t be tempted to devour it himself.  He didn’t know how to bake much (he preferred stove-top cooking) but apple pie was something he and his mom had been perfecting ever since he was a kid, and he took pride in it.

Plus he was 110% certain it tasted so good that it would ignite a white-hot passion in Castiel and drive all thoughts of camping or Kevin, right out of his mind.

_…or I guess I’ll settle for “great pie.”  Can’t be too picky,_ he thought.

He did a quick scan of the house to make sure it was appropriate for receiving guests and then checked himself out in the mirror to make sure he looked ok too. 

_Wait, what am I doing?  It’s Cas, not the freaking Queen of England.  Just play it cool.  Don’t be a dick._

The doorbell rang and interrupted his train of thought so he quickly made it down the hallway to answer it.  He opened the door to find Castiel standing there, backpack over his shoulder, and lanyard hanging around his neck.  Dean had to smile.

“Hello, Dean.”  He finally said, “I…hope this was still a good time for you.  I can come back if you’re busy.”

Dean realized he was still staring at Cas, and blocking the entrance to the house.  It looked like he was trying to prevent him from coming inside.  _You freaking moron._

“Come in Cas, sorry, I just spaced out there for a second,” he said as he held the door open for his friend to come through.  “I’ve been working on my English paper; I guess I need a break, huh.  Good thing you’re here.”  And, man did he mean that last part.

He had been buzzing with eagerness for a while now, but seeing Castiel standing there in his living room just made him feel calm, like there was nowhere he’d rather be.

“Dean, it smells amazing in here, what is that?”

With a huge grin, Dean directed them both toward the kitchen, “I’ve got two words for ya Cas: my world famous Winchester Apple Pie, hot out the oven.”

“Dean that’s more than two—“

“Alright, Alright, just hush and try some.”

Dean walked Castiel passed the kitchen and into the dining room where he still had most of his work spread out on the table.  He made a quick effort to stack the papers in order to make room and headed back into the kitchen to grab the pie.

“Your house is lovely, Dean,” Castiel mentioned politely.  “It has a welcoming feel to it.”

“Pretty cozy huh,” Dean said as he returned with two generous servings of pie.  “Yeah, it’s just me, my brother Sammy, and my mom.  And I think things are finally looking up,” he said that last part without thinking.  Before Cas could ask about anything, he was making his way back to the kitchen, “Oh, I almost forgot.”

He came back quickly, carrying two mugs of hot coffee with him.  He sat one down in front of his guest along with some creamer, next to the sugar bowl that had a permanent place at the table.  “I know you’ve got a caffeine addiction Cas,” he teased, “Plus, this will go well with the pie.”

He sat down opposite Castiel who seemed very excited about the coffee, but was surprisingly more impressed with the pie.  It looked like he was making heart-shaped eyes at it.

_This is the day._ Dean thought to himself, _today will be known as the day I was jealous of pie._

Cas picked up his fork and helped himself to a hearty bite.  His eyes closed slowly as he savored the flavor.  Dean felt like the seconds were ticking away as he stared at his mouth then let his gaze drop down to Castiel’s throat as he swallowed.

Cas finally opened his eyes and caught Dean staring at him.  He swore he could make out the smallest of blushes creeping across those cheeks.

_This is also the day I was aroused by a dude eating pie._ Dean couldn’t help but think.  _A lot of firsts for me today._ He mused as he picked up his coffee to break the tension.

Cas also picked up his mug to wash down the pie with.  “Shit.”  He said suddenly.  “Dean, you complete asshole.” 

Dean raised his eyebrows because he wasn’t expecting that reaction. “What? What did I do?” he chuckled, because even though Cas sounded serious, he knew him well enough to tell when he was actually being sarcastic.

“How am I going to be able to drink the coffee at school after tasting _this_?” he gestured to the mug in his hand.  “Also, this is some damn good pie.  When I tell Gabriel that there’s a pie out there better than his, he might be quite put out.”

Dean was beaming with pride.  “You mean the cousin you live with that’s a chef?”

“Well he’s studying to be a chef, but yes.  I’ve developed quite the sweet tooth because of him.”

Dean made a mental note of that, he hadn’t known Cas was just as crazy over pastries as he was for coffee.  Good to know.

_Can’t go wrong with pie._

“Either way, feel free to brag about me all you want, Cas,” he teased, looking up through his lashes.  Unfortunately, his guest didn’t pick up on the flirty bait, but instead just nodded and dove enthusiastically right back into his pie and coffee.

_It’s like trying to get Mom’s attention when she’s watching_ How to Get Away With Murder _, just ain’t gonna happen._ Dean realized.

 Maybe trying to get Cas to notice him with his baking skills wasn’t the best idea, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret his decision because Dean was able to notice more about Cas.  Like the way he had shown up all polite and even formal sounding.  Or the way he thoughtfully (and erotically, if it’s pie, apparently) ate his food.  How, if you paid close enough attention, you could see a range of emotions playing out in his eyes.  Plus, Dean’s favorite thing, which was being able to watch how Castiel became more comfortable in his company, obvious by the way he started dropping formalities (and started using curse words).

He let Cas finish the rest of his coffee without much more conversation.  Dean had also figured out early on that Castiel wasn’t into small talk, and had become use to moments of comfortable silence with him.  Sometimes it seemed like that’s when Castiel’s walls were really down, when he was able to sit deep in thought.  Dean often found himself wishing he could read minds.

When both had finished their slices, Dean reached over to grab the dishes and went to place them in the kitchen sink.  When he came back he saw Cas had picked up the copy of his English paper he had stacked on top of the pile still sitting on the table.

“Dean, who is this supposed to be?” he turned the paper around and pointed to a doodle scribbled on the top-right corner of the page.

Dean had to try really hard to not look surprised.  He’d totally forgotten about the picture he’d drawn earlier this morning while working on his paper.  “Isn’t it obvious?” he replied, faking nonchalance.  “It’s you.”

To his immense relief, that made Cas smile, and he turned the paper back around to look at it again.  “Your proportions are way off, to say the least,” he said dryly.

Dean’s confidence made a comeback when he realized he hadn’t freaked him out, so he stepped around Cas to look over his shoulder at the doodle.

It really was of Castiel.  His head was way bigger than his body, with bunches of hair sticking out at all angles.  His eyes were huge too, and colored in with a bright blue highlighter.  He had an expression of concentration, mixed with slight annoyance.

“It’s the face you kept making when we were working on our papers in the library.  When I was working on my paper this morning, I couldn’t concentrate, and I realized it was because you weren’t here making that face at me to keep me on track.  So I drew it,” He said honestly.

Castiel didn’t say anything right away; he just kept looking at the drawing, seemingly thinking something over in his head.  Finally, he put the paper back on top of the pile.  Then he went to reach for his backpack.

Dean couldn’t help but feel on edge.  Had the doodle actually freaked Castiel out enough that he was grabbing his stuff to go?

Luckily, that didn’t seem to be the case, because Cas unzipped his bag, and pulled out what seemed to be a large notebook.  He walked back over to Dean and handed it to him.

“I like to sketch,” he said quietly.

“Really?” Dean took the offered sketchbook and started flipping through the pages.

There were all sorts of drawings in there.  Some of the pages were covered in detailed, alternating patterns; others had sketches of things like superheroes, dragons, and even calligraphy.  There were also pictures of what seemed to be random everyday objects but drawn with great detail; landscapes in both black and white, and color.  The ones Dean found most impressive were the very realistic drawings of people.  The shading and detail that went into them were amazing (and was that Viola Davis?).

Before he got the chance to praise Cas on his artwork, he got to a few pages covered in caricatures and couldn’t help but crack a smile.  Some he could recognize; there were a few politicians and characters from books like _Harry Potter_ and _Legend of Zelda_ (as if Dean needed more of a reason to like him).

_I get it, you’re amazing.  Don’t have to beat me over the head with it…I might develop an obsession._

He flipped toward the more recent pages and saw sketches of a few more people.  He was super surprise to recognize one of Jo’s uncle, Bobby, but there was no mistaking that beard and truckers hat.  There was one of a guy cooking who he hoped was Cas’ cousin, and then one of a few people in a crowded coffee shop.  And up in a little corner was a sketch of Dean.

He was smiling, eyes wide with a look of amusement on his face.  There was no mistaking it was him because, unlike Dean, Cas had some real talent and had captured Dean’s features dead on.

“You drew me too,” was all he could think to say.  And he quickly noticed with a feeling of victory that Kevin was _not_ featured anywhere in this sketchbook.  Dean was so flattered, he felt like a balloon was being filled inside his stomach.  His throat went dry and he knew he had a stupid grin on his face.

Castiel had been quietly standing behind Dean, watching him flip through the pages of his book.  “I like to take note of what people look if they have an interesting face, or have expressed a vibrant emotion.”

Dean had to ask, “So when did I make this face?”

“I believe that was on the way to English, remember.  Right before we went into the lecture hall you stopped to look in the bushes because you thought you saw a dog but it ended up being two squirrels going at it,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Cas!  I thought it was going to be something more significant than two squirrels porking!,” Dean couldn’t help but feel a little cheated here.

Castiel just shrugged his shoulders in response, “It was significant to you, Dean.”

“Yeah, well…if anyone asks, tell them I was really happy about acing a test or make something up, sheesh,” he suggested as he handed the sketchbook back to Cas.

“Don’t worry, I don’t usually show these to anyone.  I doubt word will get around of your interest in small rodent mating habits.”

Dean didn’t even care that Cas had basically just called him a squirrel perv.  All he could focus on was the fact that Castiel considered his sketchbook private, but had willingly allowed Dean to see it.  The whole thing seemed much more significant all of a sudden.

Castiel didn’t seem to want to make a big deal out of it though, so Dean decided to change the topic.

“Much appreciated.  Now let’s go take a look at the camping gear.  It’s over here in the living room,” he gestured for Cas to follow him.

They ended up just dragging the whole box into the back yard because not only had Cas never been camping, but of course he’d never set up a tent.  And Dean didn’t want to give him any sort of excuse for having to share a tent with Kevin Tran later, so he insisted on showing him how to do it properly.

He watched as Cas unzipped the bag with the tent and carefully took out all of the contents.  His eyes got slightly bigger when he realized how big the neatly folded material actually was.

“Don’t worry Cas, I’ll show you how to get it back in there,” Dean said to address his concern.

“That’s what she said,” he heard Castiel say without missing a beat.  “Sorry, force of habit.”

Dean barked a laugh, “Dammit, Cas.  Don’t do that to me, or we’ll never get this done.”  _Because I’ll walk over there and kiss your face off you smart-mouthed little shit._

“My apologies…I promise to behave,” Castiel nodded as he tried to regain focus on unfolding the tent, brow furrowed in concentration.  He also had a habit of biting his lower lip when he was deep in thought. And damn, could he be more adorable…

Dean had to stifle a whimper.  _He has to know what he’s doing to me, right?_

He couldn’t know for sure, but it seemed like Cas was just being Cas, which just also happened to hit all of Dean’s weak spots.  He really liked him though and didn’t want to risk coming on too strong and making Castiel feel uncomfortable; that’d be the worst. 

He slowly came to the decision that it was going to take time for Cas to recognize Dean’s crush, he was just that type of guy.  He could observe countless things at first glance, but was apparently not too good with subtext.  It didn’t matter though, as long as he got to spend time with this cranky dork, Dean would be patient.

He was pulled out of his inner thoughts when a tent pole hit him on the forehead.  Dean looked over and saw Cas struggling to get the damn thing through the loops of the tent.  He laughed and gave him a few more seconds before stepping in behind him.

“Ok, ok.  The trick is to not let the tent bunch up like you have it here,” he advised.

Castiel followed his tips and in an impressive amount of time, had the tent pitched and ready to go.  He took a moment to admire his work, small smile on his face.

“Yeah, good job there, _Bear Grylls_.  Now you have to figure out how to take it down and fold it into a tiny square so that it fits back in the carrying bag.”

Castiel walked around the tent with a contemplative look on his face before answering, “Dean are you, by chance, emotionally attached to this tent in anyway?”

Dean thought this was a weird thing to ask but answered anyway, “No, not really.  It’s just a tent.  Why?”

“Well it’s quite possible I won’t be able to coax it back into its carrying tote…and it will be sacrificed to the mountain.” He gravely responded, turning to look at Dean with an already apologetic look on his face.

Dean’s initial reaction was to laugh and assure him it was easier than it looked.  His second reaction was to joke about kicking his ass if he ruined the dumb tent.  But after considering it for a quick second, he decided to try to get Cas to see his _intentions_.

“Don’t worry about it, Cas.  If you do end up ruining the tent, there are… _other_ ways to make it up to me.”  He took a step closer to Castiel, “ _We_ got all the time in the world to figure it out.”  Oh man, he was laying on his sensual voice and the most charming smile he could muster, Cas _had_ to pick up on that.  A gun would be more subtle.

For a second he thought he saw a flash of understanding on Castiel’s face, but it was too quick to tell.  Instead Cas redirected his attention back to the tent and began taking it down again.  “Thank you for your understanding, Dean.  But you will show me the proper intended procedure, right?”  He asked, apparently very much invested in mastering the art of tent pitching.

Dean shook his head incredulously when Cas wasn’t looking.  Maybe Castiel was catching all of his advances and was just trying not to lead him on by encouraging him.  Crap that was a possibility.  But again, it was hard to tell with Cas because he was always kind of just himself.  Dean didn’t sense any shifts in Cas when he tried to flirt, like repulsion or anything.  He would just have to keep working on figuring him out, and if it meant spending more afternoons teaching a clueless Cas how to do seemingly ordinary tasks, then so be it.

 

***

 

Castiel struggled to get up the stairs to his apartment as he was dragging along the box containing the camping stuff Dean had let him borrow.  Just a few seconds ago he had said his thanks to Dean for driving him home so he wouldn’t have to carry the box on the bus.

“No problem, Cas.  It’s a shame Mom took my car to work, otherwise you would have had the honor of riding in a real classic.  But this scrap bucket works just as good,” Dean had said, patting the dashboard of the old pick-up truck they had ridden in.

“Maybe you can give me a ride some other time,” Cas had said without thinking, he blushed now at the memory.

Dean had looked him straight in the eyes and simply replied, “Oh, definitely,” which was quickly followed by a fidgety retreat on Cas’ part.

Now he was in the safety and comfort of his own apartment again.  Away from handsome assholes who were way out of his league and also not assholes, but really, really nice guys named Dean.

He had spent most of the afternoon with him, and had even made up his mind on the bus ride there to not read too much into what would happen at Dean’s house.  He was simply doing Castiel a favor.  If he let himself get his hopes up then he’d just get hurt and feel like a fool in the long run.  It had happened to him before.

Castiel’d had a crush on a boy in high school.  They got along great and had so much in common.  But looking back now, he realized he’d only seen what he wanted to see and ended up misinterpreting things.  The boy turned out to not even be gay.  He had let Cas down easy, but it had ruined their friendship and they hardly spoke after that.

Cas didn’t know many people in college, he was just starting to build a network of support and Dean had proven to be a great friend.  It was logical why he was hesitant to put that at risk.

And then Dean goes and acts like a complete _Dick_ serving Cas freaking orgasmic pie with coffee that seemed to have been milked straight out of Zeus’ left nipple.  And making him feel all warm and fuzzy when he saw the doodle of himself.  AND being really patient when Castiel was struggling with the tent.  All while being charming, and hadsome and...

_Shit, the nerve of that guy.  How the hell am I supposed to keep this platonic if he keeps being so…damn…_

_Perfect._

Castiel was miserable.  He had a crush.  A big ugly crush and he really wasn’t up for the stress and energy they tended to take out of him.  It’s not like he could avoid Dean either, they were friends now, and he wouldn’t be selfish and ruin that.

He allowed himself to wallow for about two more minutes before he made his way to his room.  He didn’t care if it was counterproductive of him, he needed to release some stress, get it out of his system.

He locked the door behind him and lay in bed.  Taking a few steadying breaths, he moved his hands to the zipper of his jeans and pulled it down, undoing the button as well.  He pushed all the clothing down and quickly put lotion on his hand to finally grab the semi he’d been sporting for most of the afternoon.

Cas tried in vain to think of other things, but quickly gave in and allowed himself to picture green eyes and freckles. 

_“Shit.”_ He gasped quietly.  It wasn’t fair how much better it felt with the thought of Dean’s eyes on him, saying his name in that rough growl of his.

As he worked his hand up and down, he started picturing what Dean would look like on his knees, looking up at him through his gorgeously long lashes.  He wanted to know what his mouth would feel like engulfed around his dick.

Damn he was so hard already.  Pleasure was building heavy and oh, it felt so good.

Without warning a moan escaped his mouth, followed by a roughly whispered, “Dean.”

He pumped his hand harder, wanting to savor it, but also desperate for his release.  He couldn’t help but rock his hips in time as well, thinking about how incredible it would be, finally able to push inside.

“Fuck.”

His heavy breathing became even more ragged.  With a few more firm strokes, he felt his orgasm punch through him as he alternated chanting Dean’s name and “fuck yes.”

He laid there, spent, taking a moment to appreciate the sense of euphoria.  Once he came down from his orgasm, he cleaned himself up as best he could, but quickly decided to just go take a hot shower instead to help him relax even more.

“And after, I guess I’ll make another attempt at that internship application,” he said with a sigh, already decidedly putting thoughts of Dean on the back burner to focus on less daunting tasks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to dive more into the Cas and Dean relationship, have them spend more time with each other before Cas goes camping.


	6. Misuse of Devices Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Based on true events (sadly)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't have as much time as I would have liked because it is my dear Mother's birthday, so I am posting part 1 of the camping trip which actually has no camping in it haha. I will post the second part within the next couple days.

Honestly, Dean felt he should be given a metal for the patience he had displayed following his brother Sam around the 24 hour supermarket without complaining (much).  He didn’t know the reasoning behind it, but he swore shopping always made him short-tempered. 

It could also be that it was about 1:20am, Thursday morning, technically.  Sammy had woken Dean up because he had forgotten to make a poster for his science fair project.  Or maybe it was his debate club.  Heck it was probably ballet…Sammy really did way too many extracurriculars.

Either way they found themselves walking up and down the aisles of the school/office supplies.  While they were there, Dean figured they’d pick up a few things so their mom wouldn’t have to stop by after her shift, so they made their way through most of the other aisles after Sam had collected his poster board and art supplies.

“You know, Cas is actually a really good sketch artist?”  Dean stated as his brother placed some markers into their cart.  It was the first thing he’d said without an undertone of irritation for being dragged to the supermarket in the dead of night.

Sam playfully rolled his eyes, because yes, he had been told at least five times before.  But he saw it put his big brother in a better mood so he decided to keep the conversation going.  “How is Cas doing, anyway?  Did you see him in English this morning?”

“Yeah, he’s a little nervous about his camping trip on Friday.  And mentioned something about a favor he owed his cousin that he wasn’t too happy about having to do.”  Dean chuckled at the memory of Castiel’s face that morning.  It was obvious he’d been tired, even more so than usual because Cas didn’t seem to be a morning person.  His eyes had been practically glazed over, but he smelled like lavender.

“What kind of favor did he owe his cousin?” Sam asked curiously.

“Apparently they struck a deal.  In exchange for his cousin cooking meals for his trip, Cas had to wake up at the ass crack of dawn and hand-wash his favorite teddy-bear.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“That’s what I said, but you should have seen the look on his face when I told him that,” Dean made an effort to wipe the grin off his face.  He replaced it with Castiel’s almost constant knit brows and slight frown, before making his best impression of a serious voice to copy what he’d said that morning:

“It’s a very large, very old, fragile bear, Dean.  And he has a lot of accessories plus countless outfits.  All needed to be hand-washed with special hypoallergenic lavender soap."  He then made his eyes wide to mimic the way Castiel’s had been.  “…I _hate_ lavender, Dean.”

Dean finally broke character, laughing at the memory and at his own bad impersonation.  Poor Cas had looked like he was about ready to punch someone in the face, he was so tired.  Dean had of course been sympathetic at the time, and tried to make Cas feel better.  But with it being 1:30 in the morning now, and suffering from his own lack of sleep, he couldn’t help but giggle at Castiel’s unfortunate situation.

“Dean.  Dean!” Sam called from a distance.  Dean then heard a shopping cart wheeling up behind him.  “Damn it, would you stop drooling over Cas already.  I was three aisles ahead before I realized you weren’t following behind me.”

“Rude.  Didn’t you hear my Cas impersonation?”

“Yeah, then I said ‘oh that reminds me, we need laundry soap’ but you just stayed here, making googly eyes at the sunscreen,” Sam shook his head in disapproval’.

“Oh.  Well we need sunscreen too,” Dean tried to justify.  He randomly reached out and grabbed the first bottle he saw then placed it in the shopping cart.  He then started walking away to hide his slight blush.  His brother knew he was crushing on Castiel, but he didn’t have to know how exactly _gone_ he was.

 “Dean, no, wait!”  Sam ran after him trying to catch up, “This bottle is tiny and really expensive—“

“—Sammy, please.  I’ve made a quick executive decision because it’s almost 2 in the morning.”  Dean interrupted, but he was glad for the change in conversation so he continued to ramble.  “And besides pretty don’t come cheap.  I am not trusting my mug to some oily store-brand stuff.”  He said as he took the bottle back from his brother.  “Besides, have you smelled this stuff?  It smells awesome.”

And to emphasize his point Dean made a big show of popping the cap and taking a whiff.  Out of habit he gave the bottle a little squeeze and at the same time he brought it up to his nose but unfortunately, the tiny bottle was fuller than he realized.

Very suddenly, one huge, viscous stream of sunscreen jetted out of the bottle and squirted all over Dean’s face, particularly his mouth which was now agape with surprise.  Sam too just stood shocked for a few seconds before a huge shit-eating grin spread across his face, chest shaking in silent laughter.

“Don’t even say it.” Dean huffed, as he reached to smear the white goo off his face.

“Dean...” Sam said, taking a second to clear his throat and gain his composure, “…it looks like that bottle of sunscreen just jizzed ALL over your face—“

“Enough, Sam!”

“I’m talking like ‘money shot’…like super soldier serum—“

“—Sammy, I swear to God.”  Dean growled, still having trouble cleaning off the excess sun block from his eyebrows.

“Is it true what they say?  Is it really moisturizing?” Sammy snickered and couldn’t stop even when Dean started socking him on the arm.  “I meant the sunscreen, Dean! _Jeez_ calm down!”  At that Dean started wailing on his other arm with more vigor, “I said jeez! I SAID JEEEEEEZ!!” Sam yelled, but couldn’t help roaring with laughter all the same.

Dean finally pulled away from his brother, mostly because he was afraid that Sammy was going to get an asthma attack from his inability to draw air while laughing his ass off.

“Alright, calm down.  It’s too late for this, and way past my bedtime,” Dean declared and grabbed the shopping cart to head for the check-out without turning back to see if Sammy was following him.

 

***

Castiel was exhausted.  He was sleepy, he was tired, and had he mentioned exhausted?  He couldn’t help but shoot a death glare at the smiling lady in the poster, advertising tooth-paste in the front window of the 24-hour supermarket.  How inconsiderate of her, being in a good mood.

He’d had a tough week, to say the least.  Week three of college ended up sneaking up on him and kicking his ass.  Without realizing it he had to turn in his English paper, take another quiz for philosophy, and finish the outrageously long application for the Scholar Internship Program.   In the back of his mind he had been aware of it, but it had all caught up with him quickly.

Not to mention, Gabriel made him hand-wash Loki the Bear along with his unreasonably _huge_ wardrobe, just that morning.  He had finally finished all of his tasks, and would have gladly hibernated in his bed until Friday, except for he had just chugged an energy drink not too long ago after misjudging how long it would take to submit his application on-line.  He was now jittery with sugary energy, but his eyes burned from exhaustion and mentally he was burned out too.

Seriously, it had been sometime since his last all-nighter, but he couldn’t remember his brain being this useless.  He was easily distracted, disoriented, and was suffering from irritation and a severely short temper.  It was similar to the time when Gabriel kept refilling his glass with what he thought was sparkling apple cider at a family wedding.  It had _not_ been apple cider, and Castiel spent a good part of the night saying and doing all kinds of nonsense without his usual filters.

So here he was, nearly 2am, angrily staring at a lady in an advertisement because she had insulted him with her cheery disposition.

 _What an ass,_ Castiel thought.

He had walked to the supermarket Gabriel worked at in the hopes of burning some of the now useless energy; plus they were out of hypoallergenic lavender soap.

“Might as well buy a planner while I’m here in order to avoid this fuckery from happening again.  Am I right?” he asked the poster lady loudly, but of course did not receive an answer.  More out of irritation with himself than anything else, he responded in an angry tone, “Fine, useless.  Just shut up and eat your toothpaste.”  He waved his hand at the poster before finally making his way inside.

The florescent lights stung his eyes making Castiel blink a few times before his vision adjusted.  The store was pretty much empty, except for a few stragglers here and there.  It was a relatively large store and one of the only 24hour ones in the area, so it was not uncommon for people to come in at odd hours of the night.

Castiel stood in front of the magazine rack that was a few steps directly to the right of the entrance he had just walked through.  He wasn’t exactly sure how long he stood there staring at Oprah’s face, but he couldn’t help thinking a bit bitterly:   _I’d be on the cover of every issue if I had my own goddamned magazine too, Oprah._ He finally shook himself and tried to focus enough to remember what he was doing. 

He had never sacrificed sleep before because he loved it so much, but now he knew how essential it was for him not to end up walking around like a cranky zombie.  He decided to take a few deep breathes and center himself.  He rubbed his eyes and walked over to the nearby drinking fountain and after hydrating a little, felt a tiny bit better.

He walked down a few aisles, grabbed the first planner that caught his eye, dropped it in favor of a white board, and quickly made the trip to grab the lavender soap.

When he turned into the soap aisle, he almost instantly had a panic attack at the sight of a familiar looking brown leather jacket.  Dean was the last person he wanted to see.  He couldn’t think straight right now and he wasn’t in the best mood, plus Dean had begun to make him feel nervous lately whenever he was around.  There was no way he’d get out of this now, without babbling something embarrassing.

After a few seconds passed, Castiel was finally able to relax when he realized that the build of the person standing in front of him was all wrong.  His shoulders were not as broad as Dean’s nor did he have his short dirty blonde hair; he actually had long brown hair.

When he turned around, Castiel realized it was in fact just a really tall boy, who had to still be in high school.  The boy seemed surprised only because he hadn’t heard Castiel when he walked into the soap aisle.  He quickly stopped staring and reached for some laundry detergent at the same time Cas reached for the lavender soap, looking like a deer caught in headlights.  Before he could feel obligated to make small talk to the too-tall teenager, Castiel turned around and quickly went on his way.

As he was walking back to pay, Cas’ heart finally slowed down from the little shot of adrenaline he’d gotten back there in the soap aisle.  And he was coming down hard, also finally losing the effect of the energy drink; he could feel his body wanting to shut down on him.  He really wasn’t used to this no sleep thing yet, and crashing from both an energy drink and an adrenaline rush wasn’t helping.  With nothing more than stubborn determination, he picked up his pace to get to the check-out area.

It was easy to find Gabriel as he was the only cashier open and the register lines were deserted.  Castiel offered him a feeble wave after dropping his lavender soap and white board onto the conveyor belt (he’d actually forgotten why he was buying a white board, but was too tired to care).

“Cassie…are you ok?” Gabriel asked hesitantly as he scanned the items.

Castiel squinted at his cousin, barely able to make out the look of concern on his face.  “Um fine.  Just got out of football practice so I’m exhausted, coach is a real hard ass,” he joked, shaking his head to regain focus.  He found it safer to be a smartass than to let his words drip in the irritation he was feeling; he hoped Gabriel appreciated the effort he was putting into not being a dick.

“Heh, ok.  Well, why don’t you go wait in the break room?  My shift is almost over and I can give you a ride home.  Because let’s face it Cassie…you look like shit,” Gabriel commented with a fond smile and couldn’t help reaching for the public announcement mic, “Clean-up at cash register two.  I repeat:  we got a pile of poo, requesting clean-up.”

“Gabe, don’t misuse the store’s devices.”

“Come on Cassie, you have to press the big red button for it to actually work.  Sheesh you’re wound up tight.  When was the last time you got laid, eh?  A good _misuse of YOUR devices_ would fix ya right up,” he wiggled his eyes at his cousin as he teased. 

As he taunted Cas, Gabriel wasn’t paying enough attention and missed the bag when he went to put Castiel’s items in it.  The lavender soap rolled and ended up beneath the cash register, so he crouched low to retrieve it.  It was dark under the counter though, and he was having trouble locating it.

Meanwhile Castiel couldn’t help but think about what his cousin had said (the fact that it was a joke was entirely lost on him).  He was already irritated and his mind easily zoned in to his main source of frustration:  Dean Winchester.  Prompted by his cousin’s teasing, he decided that, _yes_ , his frustration was mostly sexual in nature, so he followed Gabe’s example and spoke into the public announcement mic for emphasis.  In his delirious, sleep-deprived state, Castiel decided to unload his irritation, and finally allowed himself to say exactly what was on his mind:

“Attention shoppers, particularly you green-eyed, _freckled-faced fucks_ by the name of ‘Asshat Winchester’.  There is a special clearance on sexually frustrated virgins.  Please claim at cash register two, while supplies last…which is usually a good 15 minutes, give or take…if you’re up for it you goddamn cock tease.”

He dropped the fake infomercial voice he was using as a fit of giggles came spilling out of his mouth.  He pushed the mic away and began laughing obnoxiously loud.

He was preoccupied in such a manner when Gabriel slowly straightened himself out from underneath the counter, finally having retrieved the bar of soap; his face, though, was a mask of pure alarm.  He reached over and pressed the big red button again, to turn _off_ the speakers.

“Cassie….Castiel!” he shouted to get his cousin’s attention.  “You do know that the PA system was on, right?”

Castiel gradually quieted down while his heart began to beat rapidly.  He stared at his cousin with his head tilted , trying to understand what Gabriel was saying to him.  He felt the blood drain from his face.  “…But you said it didn’t work if you hit the big red button,” he said in a near whisper.

Gabriel couldn’t help but look at his cousin with a mixture of amusement and pity (mostly pity).  “Oh Cassie, I said it _ONLY_ worked if you pushed the big red button.”

“Oh.”  Castiel nodded.  He had gone numb, and maybe it was due to his lack of sleep, but somehow he was managing to rationally hold-off his embarrassment.  It’s not like anyone he knew was in the store.  Plus the register area was deserted; no one had seen it was him.  It was late at night, any crazy customer or employee could have done it.

But of course, Castiel would never get off that easy.  And he almost expected the new wave of shock that spread across Gabriel’s face.  Reluctantly, Cas turned around.

Standing there with a polite, neutrally fixed face was the too-tall high school kid, apparently having completed his late-night shopping.

…Oh yeah, and of course there was Dean Winchester, sporting a similar expression to the one Gabriel was still wearing.

Without too much of a production, Castiel placed a large bill by the cash register, grabbed his bagged items and began to walk away.

“I’ll see you at home, Gabe.”

 

***

 

The ‘green-eyed, freckled face fuck’ didn’t know what to do.  He was in shock, mostly because he was sure this was all a dream.  Castiel had just announced over a supermarket PA system that he _wanted_ Dean.  It had been kind of vulgar, and Dean was still blushing.

“Hey, Winchester,” the cashier broke him out of his shock.  Dean took a few steps closer and was able to read that his name tag said ‘Gabriel.’

“You’re Cas’ cousin,” he said stupidly.

“That’s right, champ.  Say would you do me a favor?” Gabriel leaned in so that only Dean could hear.  “My baby cousin over there is actually really hammered, just got back from a geology study session, and you know the people in that department are _always_ drinking.”

Dean would protest, but Jo and Uncle Bobby were both part of the department, and well…Gabriel wasn’t wrong.

“Anyways,” Gabriel continued on, “As you can see, I’m still on the clock.  Would you be a gent and make sure he gets home ok?”  He actually did sound sincere.

“Of course,” Dean replied instantly.  He gave Sammy his card to pay for their items and rushed outside to find Cas.

Luckily, Cas hadn’t made it too far.  He was sitting outside on the display patio furniture with a torn poster for toothpaste in his hands.  He had his head down on the table, soft snores escaping as he exhaled.  With a wave of relief, Dean realized he was sleeping, and gently shook him to wake him up.

Castiel slowly raised his head, his eyes were bloodshot as he squinted against the glare of the supermarket neon signs.  “Dean?...Shit,” was all he said before he let his head fall again.  He sighed deeply before saying in a muffled voice, “I’m so sorry.”

Dean knew now was not the time to laugh, because of course Cas was feeling embarrassed (and to be honest, so was Dean).  But he couldn’t let himself freak out about what he had heard and witnessed in the store, at least not now.  Castiel needed his help getting home, and that was his priority.

_Damn if it didn’t make my night though._

It had only happened a few seconds ago, and already the memory made Dean excited at what it could mean for him and Cas in the future, he was obviously doing something right.  Although there was a doubtful voice in the back of his head that kept reminding him that Castiel was drunk.  Dean had experienced all sorts of ridiculous things while drunk, and he’d be lying if he said that he was always sincere while inebriated.

 “So ‘Asshat Winchester’ what’s the plan here?” he heard Sammy say as he came out of the store, bags in hand.  Dean threw him a warning look before turning cautiously at Cas, but he was snoring again.

“Quiet Sammy, I’ll drop you off at home since it’s on the way, and then take him to his apartment.  Dude’s trashed.”

“Ok, let’s go.  I still need to finish my poster.”

“You are going to bed and skipping debate club in the morning to work on it.”

“Dean, no!  We pick teams tomorrow.”

“Should have thought of that before you slacked off.”

Sam was looking like he was going to protest but nothing came out when he opened his mouth except a giant, drawn-out yawn.  “Yeah ok...Castiel is right you are an asshat.”

“Shut up,” his older brother replied with pink cheeks.

Dean quickly dropped his brother off and drove down the nearly deserted streets of the city.  He remembered where Cas lived from when he had dropped him off last weekend, after lending him the camping gear.  Castiel slept the short drive there.

Dean managed to find a relatively close parking spot.  He got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side to once again, wake up Castiel.  He was still disoriented so Dean helped him with his bags and put one shoulder under Cas’ arm to help him up the stairs.  Thank god for the dorky lanyard Castiel wore around his neck, because it made opening the door less awkward than it would have been if Dean had to go fishing in Cas’ pockets for the key.

Once inside, Dean reached out blindly, finally finding a light switch and flipping it on.  The light seemed to annoy Castiel, who was almost impressively still half asleep. 

 _Heavy sleeper_ Dean mentally added to his ever growing list of Cas fun facts.

He guided him down the short hallway and opened one of the two bedroom doors.  He spotted a large, misshapen bear sitting on the bed and figured it was Gabriel’s room, so he closed the door and opened the bedroom to the left.

This room was a bit smaller, with an unmade bed tucked into the far-right corner under a window.  There was a small desk on the opposite wall with a laptop, and nerdy knick-knacks on random flat surfaces all around the room.  A bookshelf next to the window was filled to capacity, and there was a poster of a map of Hyrule hanging on the closet door.

Dean really wished he had been invited into Cas’ room under different circumstances.  He wanted the chance to see what kinds of books were overflowing his shelves or observe the little figurines dotting the furniture. 

All in good time.  After hearing Cas’ little public announcement, he was sure he’d be invited back.  The thought made him blush furiously though, so he pushed those thoughts out of his head (for the time being).

As gently as he could he let Castiel fall onto his bed, and only went as far as helping him take of his shoes.  As if on auto-drive, Cas reached around until he grabbed his blanket, then wrapped himself up like a burrito.  Before long he was snoring peacefully again.

 _No doubt he’d hog the covers_ Dean smiled to himself.  Then he quietly made his way out.

 

***

A slight breeze came through the open window of Castiel’s room, allowing a beam of light to shoot through and hit him right in the face.  Cas’ eyes shot open, then immediately blinked several times to recover from the blinding sun ray.  He quickly turned over in bed and threw his comforter over his face.  His alarm hadn’t woken him up; surely he still had more time to sleep.

_My alarm…_

Castiel sat up in bed.  His eyes were heavy but well rested, and except for a bit of dehydration, he felt recovered and his mind clear of the grogginess that had plagued him for the last couple of days.

He already had a suspicion, and sure enough, confirmed after checking the time on his phone that he had overslept.  It was nearly 3pm, which meant he had accidently slept through his two classes that morning.  Obviously he had forgotten to set his alarm.

He threw his covers off and swung his legs around to get out of bed.  Instead of carpet, however, his feet landed on a noisy, crunched up material.  He looked down and realized there was a torn poster on the ground, and with a growing sense of dread, bent down to pick it up.

It was the advertisement of the lady selling toothpaste, the one that had been hanging in the front window of the 24hour supermarket.  As if someone had flipped a switch to break down his mental defenses (denial) he recalled the night before.

“Oh shit.”  His stomach became an instant knotted mess, and his face got so warm so fast it made him dizzy.  He would have gladly gone back to bed but he felt a stronger need for water and aspirin, so Castiel reluctantly made his way to the kitchen.

As he shuffled down the hallway, his nose was greeted with the sweet familiar smell of strawberry pancakes, causing his stomach to give a healthy growl.  He entered the kitchen to find Gabriel in his student chef uniform, having recently returned from school.

“Cassie, how are we today?” Gabriel asked good-humoredly.  He simply pointed to a platter filled with strawberry pancakes already waiting on the kitchen table.  Castiel’s eyes teared up at such a beautiful sight.  He waddled the few steps over to his cousin first, placed his forhead on Gabe’s shoulder in a gesture of appreciation, then went to plop down and help himself to his favorite breakfast food.

He shoveled a pancake into his mouth to gain some energy, then got up to start the coffee maker while he chugged a glass of water to chase a few aspirin.  He worked in silence next to Gabriel who was putting ingredients away and piling dishes in the sink to clean later.  Eventually they both settled at the kitchen table to eat their breakfast properly.  Castiel was the first to speak up.

“So, I know how I remember it, but I’m curious to know what it looked like from an innocent bystander’s perspective.”

Gabriel nodded as he chewed his mouthful of food.  When he finally managed to consume it, he responded.  “Not gonna lie, it wasn’t pretty.  You were out of it.  Like Aunt Naomi at Christmas dinner three years ago.”

“What about the…announcement.”

“Oh, well that bit was hilarious; as you know considering you broke down laughing so hard you snorted.”

Castiel didn’t remember the snort.  But he decided not to comment in order to get to the part he was most worried about.  He took a sip of coffee then steadied his gaze on his cousin’s face.  “What about Dean?”

“Ah yes!  Well…he was very um…entertained by it all.  But thankfully, I covered for you.”

“What do you mean, Gabriel?” This development made Castiel nervous because it was entirely possible that his well-meaning cousin had actually made things worse.

“Well, after you stoically left the store to collapse on the patio furniture out front, I may have led Dean to believe that you were smashed out of your mind,” Gabe explained, quite proud of himself.  When his cousin didn’t give him the reaction he was expecting, he went on to clarify, “Drunk, Cassie.  I told him you were drunk off your ass.”

Castiel dropped his gaze, “Yes, I understand that.  I’m just trying to decide if that’s any better than the truth.”

“Perhaps not _better_ per se, but certainly easier to explain than the truth, which was that you hadn’t had your nap yet,” Gabriel finished lamely, “frankly, not nearly as impressive sounding either.

“I hadn’t slept in over 36 hours,” Castiel defended dryly.

“Point is,” Gabriel continued, “he knows you weren’t in your right mind and took the whole debacle with a grain of salt.  It’ll blow over, don’t worry about it…Oh, but you’re banned from the store for a few weeks.  Like I said, it will blow over.”

Logically, Castiel knew that Gabe was right.  Sooner or later, this whole thing would be forgotten, but now he didn’t know where he stood with Dean.  Was he aware that Cas had a pathetic crush on him or had he written it off as a joke?  Was he repulsed by the whole thing?

Now that the initial wave of embarrassment had pretty much run its course, Castiel began feeling depressed.  Somehow he felt like he had ruined his friendship with Dean by humiliating the both of them.  Dean would probably keep his distance and eventually stop talking to him all together, just like his high school crush had done.

Almost as if he could tell what his cousin was thinking, Gabriel planted another strawberry pancake on Castiel’s plate.  “You know you should appreciate how considerate I was last night.”  When his cousin responded with a look of confusion he continued, “I may have driven around the block a few times to give you and Dean some more time alone in your room.  Although, his car was gone by the time I got home.  I thought he’d be more of a stallion than that,” he chuckled.

“Gabriel, what are you talking about?”.

“Dean.  He drove you home last night.”

“I thought you had.”

“Nope!  I hadn’t finished my shift yet and he came to the rescue,” Gabriel smiled.  “Why else would you have woken up butt ass naked?”

“I woke up fully clothed this morning,” Castiel said simply.

“Just making sure.”

So maybe Dean hadn’t been too distraught over the turn of events last night; he’d even made sure that Cas got home safely.  He wouldn’t have done that if their friendship was over, right?

Castiel mentally shook himself.  He would get nowhere trying to figure out his and Dean’s relationship just by going around in circles in his head.  They needed to talk.  And they would…eventually.  For once Cas was glad that he had a camping trip this weekend, it would help him take his mind of things with a much needed break from reality.

He finally made a strong effort to not dwell on the night before, and instead drowned his remaining sorrows in one more syrup-covered pancake.

“Gabriel, how did you dish presentation go?” he asked his cousin.

Gabe raised a brow in interest but seemed glad at the change in topic.  “It actually went amazing, thank you for asking.  I did have some trouble convincing Chef that my appetizer was in fact edible.  But once I gained his trust, things went perfectly.  What can I say Cassie, I’m gifted.”

“And humble.”

“Well that goes without saying.”


	7. Part 2: Tent Pitching

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Just a little something so that yall don't forget me. I recently got a job and its demanding, but this fic shall carry on! And OH THE IRONY...I have to wear my ID badge on a lanyard around my neck (and no I'm not an athlete).

It was early Friday morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet.  Castiel was in the living room rechecking all of his camping gear to make sure he wasn’t forgetting anything.  Gabriel was in the kitchen properly storing the meals in a cooler while piling the nonperishable items in a plastic bin.  The two worked in comfortable silence, with Gabriel’s Pandora station playing Adele quietly in the background.

Surprisingly Castiel was not nervous.  He had used up all of his emotional reserves during his most recent debacle two nights ago, and had since been looking forward to this break from normalcy.  He had caught up as best he could in the two classes he missed the day before, and all together, it was gearing up to be a good weekend.

Once he was packed up, Gabriel gave him a ride to the University parking lot where they were all supposed to meet.  Castiel could see that Kevin had already arrived, and was unloading his gear from the back of his mother’s vehicle.  Gabe parked beside them so Cas could get out and unload his own things.

More people began to show up and eventually Professor Bobby arrived and handed everyone a field trip packet that contained assignment instructions, rock descriptions, and a map of the area.

“Ok class,” the professor addressed everyone, “The drive is a long one, but we should get there a few hours before dark.  It’ll give you enough time to set up your tents and have dinner.  We will have a group meeting at around 8pm to go over the next day’s plan.”

And with that, the students packed up the four university vans, and made their way towards the mountains.  The trip was long, but Castiel didn’t mind because he appreciated long road trips.  You could sit in relatively peaceful silence without it being considered rude because no one would expect you to keep up small talk for such a long period of time.

Castiel spent most of his time staring out of the window.  Not only had he never been up to the mountains, but he had rarely traveled north before.  Most of his large extended family lived in cities south of where he grew up, so he and his parents had never had a reason to travel upstate. 

He took out his camera to snap some photos of the clear blue sky and large, ancient forest they were carefully driving through.  He made a mental note to buy a new sketch pad when he got home in order to capture the beauty of this new environment.

 _Well I have to wait until I’m no longer banned from the store._ He thought with a slight blush, but quickly shut down that train of thought.  Instead he allowed himself to focus on the wonder of his surroundings, and was soon looking forward to all the new sights he’d be able to see throughout the weekend.

_I’m gonna Bob Ross the hell out of this trip._

His lab partner, Kevin, didn’t seem to be showing the same level of enthusiasm, unfortunately.  He had mentioned (actually, his mom had announced to the class) that he got car sick easily.  Therefore, he found himself crammed in the middle seat of their row, so that he could have a clear view through the front windshield to avoid getting sick.  Plus, it also just so happened that he had ended up sandwiched between Castiel and the largest person in the class, Benny Laffite.

They hadn’t had much interaction with Benny up until that point since he sat far away during lab and lecture.  There was also the fact that he was intimidating, but not because the guy was built like an NFL linebacker.  It was because the man was a genius. 

He was the type who never seemed to put in much effort to break the class average.  Rarely would you see him taking notes or carrying his text, but if he was ever called on, he always knew the answer.  Benny was also able to get into more advanced theoretical concepts with Professor Bobby, which usually went over the rest of the class’ heads, much to Kevin’s annoyance.

You wouldn’t really peg him as the genius type upon first impression.  If one were inclined to label Mr. Laffite based off looks alone, they’d be hard-pressed to do it.  Despite his muscular frame, he did not come across as threatening.  He mostly kept to himself, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t charismatic, as he was on good terms with everyone (except, unknowingly, Mr. Tran).  Also, His eyes in particular, always seemed to have a peculiar glint in them, like he’d lived a thousand lifetimes and had discovered the secrets of the universe, and now nothing fazed him.

_Or perhaps he had spent too much time on the weird part of the internet, and had seen some shit._

Regardless, Castiel never really felt intimidated by him personally, because many of his cousins excelled greatly in various fields of study (including Gabriel, if he ever bothered to put in any effort), so he was used to being around excellence. 

But it seemed that his lab partner saw Benny as a bit of a rival.  For all the reasons Kevin studied for hours on end, or completed optional homework, or sought out resources to help him achieve his academic excellence, Benny Laffite didn’t seem to be bothered.  As a result, in Kevin’s eyes only, the burly man sitting next to him was his ultimate competition.

“What’re you working with there, brother?” came the sudden rumble of Benny’s slow drawl.

Kevin jumped the slightest bit in his seat as both he and Castiel turned towards their classmate.  Castiel was not as put off as his lab partner, who was eyeing Benny up and down in order to size him up, so he didn’t falter in responding by handing over his camera.

“It’s a Cannon, but I’m afraid I don’t know the specifics,” he said as Benny looked it over.

“Not bad, I use to have a similar one a few years ago; reliable for personal use,” he said as he handed it back over to Castiel who was nodding his agreement.

“I took it to Disneyland,” Cas assured, as if having trusted the camera with a trip to the happiest place on Earth obviously qualified it as a decent device.

“Nice.  Took mine to Haiti when I went to build homes one summer.”

Finally, a small scoff from Kevin alerted them that he’d decided to participate in the conversation, albeit, not in the friendliest tone. “So you’ve been abroad, huh?  You’ve volunteered; you have the highest lab scores in class; Jo tells me you speak Greek…Anything else?  Are you an All-American athlete too?” he rambled on bitterly.

Coming out of anyone else’s mouth, the string of questions would have sounded petty or rude, but rarely did anything from Kevin Tran sound threatening, especially with a face like his that could justly be compared to a stubborn puppy.  Castiel hoped Benny wouldn’t take offense either way, but just to be safe, he decided to try and defuse the situation.

“That’s absurd Kevin; Benny is not an athlete,” he interjected before their classmate could respond to the interrogation (even though he showed no signs of annoyance).

“What, are you kidding me?  Look at the guy; he looks like a Spartan,” Kevin proclaimed, gesturing at Benny.

“What does that have to do with anything?  You know he never wears his lanyard around his neck,” Castiel observed, as if that settled the matter absolutely.  “No lanyard therefore not an athlete.”

Kevin was well aware of his lab partner’s flawed method of identifying jocks, so instead of enabling Castiel to retell his blatant lies of having a football scholarship, he let the subject drop with one final, eye-roll.

Benny just watched in amusement and slight confusion because he wasn’t in on the joke.  “Actually, I _did,_ up until recently, wear my lanyard around my neck.  Just last weekend I gave it to my elderly neighbor to replace the strap on her Life Alert device.”

“Oh, really?  In that case, what sport do you play?” Castiel asked in a seemingly serious tone.

Benny didn’t answer right away, he was glancing between Cas’ face of innocent curiosity, and Kevin Trans suspicious glare.  He wasn’t sure if he _should_ answer.

“…Does Chess count?”

“Probably not, but I’ll have to ask my cousin.”

“Well I _am_ on a rugby scholarship…if you want to get technical,” Benny admitted.

“There it is,” Kevin sighed, as he finally dropped his death glare.  He seemed to be accepting the fact that Mr. Laffite was simply one of those gifted assholes. 

It happens.

After that, the three fell into easy conversation.  As the miles passed them by, their chatter naturally transitioned into where the best place to survive a zombie apocalypse was.  Somehow, they then began talking about Costco hotdogs, which eventually ended with a discussion of the parallels and symbolism of World War II found in _Casablanca_.  Before they knew it, they had reached the campsite.

Professor Bobby took a second to show the class where the portable toilets were, as well as the water faucet, and fire pit.  When the basic campsite regulations had been explained, the students were allowed to set up their areas, which had to be done quickly because the sun was setting.

Castiel set to work.  He was eager to see if he had remembered everything Dean had taught him about pitching a tent.  He took everything out of the carrying tote and laid the material flat.  Then, without bunching anything up, he worked the tent poles diagonally through the loops.  The tricky part was getting the end of the pole into the final loop that held the damn thing up.  He was struggling a bit, after fitting one end in, the other would instantly pop out.  Thankfully Jo came to put him out of his misery.

“Here let me help you,” she said with a smile, and forced one of the poles into the right loop, then held it in place while Castiel got the other end.  They did the same to the second pole, and in a few seconds the tent was up and ready to go.

“Thank you for your assistance.”

“No problem,” Jo said, already walking away to the next struggling student, “I know that particular tent _very well_ , and you can’t be gentle because it doesn’t cooperate.  Dean and I figured that out the hard way,” she laughed.

Castiel felt a pang of jealousy hit him fast and deep.  How on earth would Jo know _this_ tent?  This was Dean’s tent.  That meant that she had most likely stayed in his tent.

_Like overnight._

He didn’t know how else to interpret it as his thoughts ran away from him in unexpected panic. 

He knew Dean was local from the city, and Jo had mentioned during his orientation that she was as well.  It was possible they were formerly involved somehow.  They definitely knew each other, based on how fondly she had said ‘Dean and I.’

 _How do I know it’s_ formerly _?  They could still be an item…_

He didn’t even want to begin to think about what that might mean for his own relationship with Dean.  With this new perspective, the incident a few days ago seemed twice as embarrassing.

_Shit._

He decided not to think about it.  The thought of Dean having been involved with someone this whole time was too much.  It would mean that, yet again, Castiel had read into a relationship, and again he was left feeling foolish for entertaining the thought that someone like that ‘freckled-faced fuck’ would be interested in him.

A new paralyzing wave of embarrassment and regret washed through him.  All of his interactions with Dean were rapidly replaying in his mind.  At the time, he remembered being confused and unable to decidedly interpret their encounters as flirtatious or not.  However, with the disappointment he was feeling with this newfound knowledge of Jo and Dean, he was able to see everything through an unbiased perspective.  It was possible that Dean was just being friendly, and it was devastating to realize that subconsciously, he had been holding out hope that something was happening between them.

_I’m delusional.  And I’ve made an ass of myself._

He busied himself, stocking their bear locker with food so that animals wouldn’t get to it, hoping that the task would keep his mood from plummeting, but he found himself growing angry.

Castiel may have never had a relationship before, but he wasn’t completely clueless.  He was now realizing that he couldn’t write off everything Dean had done as platonic.  It wasn’t that far of a stretch to have thought Dean was making advances toward him.   And the thought made him angry.

Was Dean just having fun with him?  Was he just bored, and decided to conquer the quiet kid?

He let his anger bubble up until his face got warm and skin felt prickly, and slammed the locker door a bit hasher than necessary.  Then he turned to put his backpack away in the tent.

Once he was inside the tent, away from the rest of the students, he took a long, defeated breath.  His anger had evaporated away, replaced with melancholy.  As he sat in his little shelter, he remembered that it was Dean who had happily offered it to him.  He had even shown him how to pitch it…

Memories of that day raced through Castiel’s mind.  He lay on his back as he admitted to himself that Dean was not the type of person to use someone, to lead them on for the sake of some sick ego stroke.

There was no way around it, Cas had fallen into the trap he desperately wanted to avoid.  And hadn’t he decided not to read Dean’s actions romantically?  Hadn’t he decided that for himself from the get go?

It just proved to show how helpless he was, that his own subconscious mind had screwed him over from the start, and now he had to deal with a one-sided crush.

Castiel sat back up.

Enough self-pitying, he could get through this (he had once before).  He’d just have to reduce the time he spent with Dean.  After _the Vagina Monologues_ , he would limit their contact to just in class.  Eventually this crush had to go away, and maybe then they could go back to hanging out. 

Castiel just needed some time, because right now the thought of Dean made him feel…sad and stupid.  He hoped it wasn’t too selfish to focus on his emotional well-being, but it was something he would have to do first or else their friendship would definitely fall apart later.

 _It is absolutely the most ridiculous thing to go through a break-up for a relationship that only happened in your head,_ Castiel thought to himself. 

He took just a second longer before deciding it was time to go back outside and help finish setting up.  Surely Kevin needed some help with his tent, and moping about Dean in Dean’s tent was not going to benefit anyone.

He awkwardly got out of the tent and zipped it back up.  Kevin had set up his own gear on the other side of a large bush they had decided to use as a barrier between them for privacy.  As he made his way around, he came onto an unexpected scene that, strangely enough, made him forget about his own misfortunes for a second.

Kevin had set up his tent, but it wasn’t a standard two-person tent as had been suggested to the class.  He had what looked like a small house, complete with a triangle flag sticking out of the very top.  Through the open door a cot with an actual mattress was visible, as well as a small foldable table with a two-way radio sat on top. What was meant to be his daypack was actually a fully-sized hiking bag, stuffed to capacity with first aid kits and Cliff bars.

Kevin had changed into his ‘wilderness’ outfit too.  He was head-to-toe tan colored, with cargo pants and a cargo vest.  His hat looked like something straight out of a cartoon, with the brim folded up on only one side, and his boots seemed to be standard military issue.

Castiel gave his own old sneakers a self-conscious glance, before he cleared his throat to alert Kevin to his presence.

“I came to see if you needed any help, but it seems you’ve come…prepared,” he coughed.  Kevin had been dousing himself in bug spray when he turned around to address his lab partner. 

“Castiel, you have no idea.  I’ve prepared for all possibilities, and watched 5 hours straight of _Man vs. Wild_ on tv last night.  We will make it through this weekend,” Kevin responded with his hands high on his hips, look of severity on his face.

“And don’t worry, I don’t think it will come to this, but if we have to drink our own urine, I’ve got it covered,” Kevin assured him as held up a small book called _How to Shit in the Woods._

The last thing Cas had expected was to find Kevin in full survivor mode.  He looked like Clayton from _Tarzan._ Technically they were only going to be here tomorrow, and then drive back the day after.  But Kevin looked like he was ready to take on Mother Nature herself. 

_…Good for him_

Castiel didn’t trust himself not to laugh, so he simply nodded before slowly retreating back around the shrubbery to finish storing the food.  His lab partner came around a few minutes later, ready to help with dinner.  They pulled the appropriate containers out of their cooler, and Kevin insisted he would make a fire even though they had with them a portable stove.  Castiel wasn’t the discouraging type though, so he let his lab partner have a go at it.

Kevin took out two white rocks and began striking them in order to get the resulting sparks to ignite the pile of dry grass he had collected in the middle of the fire pit.  After a few minutes, the best he had managed was a few seconds of light smoke, before it would all blow out.  Because the sun was dangerously low now, Castiel decided he better start looking for the stove as a contingency plan when Benny suddenly appeared.

He didn’t offer much by way of greeting, he just squatted down by the frustrated Tran (who had now pulled out a pack of matches instead) and leaned down to rearrange the pile of dry grass.  Using some small twigs, he built a make-shift tepee, then stepped back and allowed Kevin to light it with a stricken match.  The tiny structure helped in keeping most of the wind out, and soon they had a tiny flame going.  Benny continued to instruct Kevin on how to build a proper fire, and in a few short minutes they had managed to achieve a sizable flame.

“I’m afraid to ask, but where did you learn to build a fire?” Kevin questioned hesitantly as they stood admiring their work.

“My father taught me,” Benny replied simply, which caused Kevin some relief to hear that his classmate did experience things normally sometimes too.  That was until Benny couldn’t help adding with a smirk, “Yeah, I think I was about seven years old when we were backpacking through the desserts of Mexico.  We had just caught our dinner after it had nearly killed me, and built a fire to eat the snake…still got the rattle.”

Kevin’s mouth hung open, eyes a little wide because who the hell was this guy?

Almost as if Benny could guess what his classmate was thinking, he barked out a laugh and clapped him on the back.  “Just messing with you, brother.”

“Oh my god, you suck!” Kevin laughed, because of course no one lived like that.

“Yeah…I never backpacked through the Mexican dessert,” he told his classmate, “I was an Eagle Scout though,” he casually mentioned.  Kevin stopped laughing again, replacing his smile with a tiny pout.  Benny was starting to figure out that Tran saw him as a rival, and far be it from him to rob the poor little guy of motivation.  He gave him one final grin before making his way back to his own tent.

“Benny is kind of an amazing guy,” Castiel said innocently enough, bringing over the necessary items needed to heat up their dinner.

“I know right?  What an asshole,” Kevin furrowed his brow.  “I want to be like him when I grow up.  Shit don’t tell him I said that.”

“Maybe we should have asked him if he also happens to be an Iron Chef, because unlike my cousin, I have no culinary skill what so ever,” Castiel admitted.

“Well I’m no Bobby Flay, but I can at least heat up some food,” offered Kevin, determined to prove he was just as capable of being useful.

After dinner they all gathered around the main campfire in the middle of all the smaller sites.  Professor Bobby made his way to the circle and sat in a folding chair, flanked by his TA Joe.  Castiel still felt tendrils of jealousy and humiliation around Jo so he opted to stand at the complete opposite end from her, by where Benny was perched on a log, joined by Kevin.

“Ok class, listen up.  We have one full day here tomorrow, and you better make the best of it.  Take a look at your maps in the handout.”  He waited a few seconds as people directed their flashlights and headlights towards their papers.  “Your goal tomorrow is to make it near the top of Mount Peligro where the caves are located, stay on trail.  There you will find the granodiorites from last week’s lab.  Wherever you find ‘Type 1’ you need to color it red on your map; color ‘Type 2’ purple for clarity.  Once you have the indicated mapping area colored in fully, make your way back.”

The students around the campfire were quiet as they listened to their professor’s instructions.  Castiel was glad that he’d had the foresight to bring his notes along with him, and Kevin had snapped photos of the samples in lab, so matching them to the caves should not be too difficult.

“Above all, stay safe.  Again, stay on the trails.  And work in teams of three,” Professor Bobby instructed sternly.  “If you have any questions, let me know, otherwise, get some rest.”

Kevin and Castiel exchanged a look as soon as they had finished hearing the instructions.  They needed to be in teams of three and of course there were only two of them.  Cas offered a shy smile at Kevin, to indicate what he was thinking.  When his lab partner caught his meaning, he opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it, and instead gave his reluctant approval.

“Benny, we were wondering if you’d like to join our group,” Castiel spoke up before Kevin could change his mind.

Benny gave Kevin a short glance, before nodding, “Sounds good to me. “

“Great, we’ll see you in the morning,” Castiel said as he rose and bid his two classmates goodnight.

Even though they hadn’t done much more than drive all day, Cas was exhausted.  He found it tiring being around people, for some reason it sapped his energy having to be mindful of others in his company, not that he minded it so much, but still, he was drained.

He crawled into his tent, deciding to leave the rain flap off so that he could gaze up at the night sky through the mesh.  It was gorgeous.  Never had he seen so many stars, so big, or such a clear night sky.

He took a second to pause and reflect like he had promised himself he would.  At the moment he felt…sore, both mentally and physically.  He couldn’t help but feel a rush of depression flush through him.  He had been holding back his feelings of dread because it made him feel unnecessarily dramatic, but inevitably thoughts of Dean would worm their way to the forefront of his mind.

He didn’t regret meeting Dean, or the friendship that had easily developed between the two of them.  In fact he didn’t even regret his little outburst at the supermarket.  He was sure that in a few years, looking back at these memories would serve as some sort of lesson (hopefully).

In spite of all that, Castiel decided to look for the silver lining.  He was experiencing something brand new right now, and it would not be fair to himself to have spoiled this time by only focusing on Dean Winchester.  Not only were the stars amazing, but the moon was huge and  bright enough to allow Cas to see the tree tops.  The air was fresh and soothing, cool on his skin.  He could breathe out here.

And even though he wasn’t particularly looking forward to the physical exhaustion a whole day of hiking will bring him, it was only one day.  He could survive one day.

_Right?_


	8. WWBGD:  What Would Bear Grylls Do?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel looks to nature to find some peace of mind.

Castiel woke up twice Saturday morning.  The first time was before the sun had risen; he felt freezing cold drops of water hitting his face.

_Shit, don’t tell me it’s raining!_

He shot awake inside his small but cozy tent.  It took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the unexpected darkness.  When he was finally aware enough to take in his surroundings he realized it wasn’t raining, condensation had just built up on the mesh of his tent, a consequence of foregoing the rain flap.  He felt a few sore spots, one on his left shoulder and another along his right hip from sleeping on the ground.  He made a quick scan of his tent to make sure there weren’t any giant horrific bugs crawling on the outside.  There weren’t any.  With an overwhelming sense of relief, he mentally cheered that he had successfully survived the first night. 

Castiel then realized that he was still exhausted, and wouldn’t mind postponing this sure-to-be long day a bit more.  Luckily, he’d always been an expert level sleeper, and simply pulled his sleeping bag over his head before immediately knocking out again.

The second time he woke up, it was again in alarm.  An obnoxiously loud and frightening noise ripped him from his sleep.  It sounded like a broken car horn shoved up a screaming cow’s ass.

He quickly shuffled out of his tent and saw Kevin and Benny had also gotten up on high alert, looking for the offending noise.

“RISE AND SHINE!” called the gruff voice of their professor, with the unusual undertone of enjoyment.  He had in his left hand a small trumpet, the source of the obnoxious blast that had woken everybody up.  Again, Professor Bobby raised it to his lips and let out another torturous string of blaring sounds.  Now that Castiel knew it was a musical instrument, he could vaguely make out parts of _Reveille_.

“That is cruel and unusual, Sir,” murmured Kevin as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, hair still sticking up.

By 8am the class was ready to go.  There were several caves throughout the mountain range, most of them on Mount Peligro.  The professor had given the teams permission to pick whichever direction they wanted to head in as long as they stayed on the path.  Kevin, Benny, and Castiel decided to take the trail to the east because it seemed to lead to two neighboring caves that fell within their mapping area (approved by their instructor).  If one cave didn’t have anything interesting, maybe the other would (Also, none of them had ever mapped before so no one had a clear idea of what they were doing).

“Onward, I suppose,” Cas suggested.  They had to start somewhere.

It hadn’t been more than five minutes on the path when Kevin realized he was going to die.

“Fellas…how much…is your academic integrity…worth to you?” He said in between wheezes.

Benny was furthest up ahead, and had to stop and turn around in order to make sure that he’d heard right.  “What are you getting at, brother?”

“Like—“ gasp “—as in dollars.” He finally had to come to a complete stop as he dropped his day pack to the ground.  “Because I might not make it…(ah my side aches), and I will have to pay you both handsomely to complete the assignment without me,” he blew a breathe out.

Somehow, Benny had convinced him to leave the heavy and unnecessary backpacking gear behind.  Castiel had heard the ends of their conversation going something like: “Bear Grylls doesn’t need a solar powered dehumidifier, neither do you.”

Still, Kevin had to rummage through all of his more travel-friendly camping gear before retrieving his inhaler and taking two puffs.

Castiel was relieved for the break, because he too had been feeling his calves burning from the trail that felt steeper than it looked.  He wasn’t in terrible shape, only thanks to the occasional tennis matches he’d play against Gabriel, but he wasn’t use to hiking at all, which five minutes had made perfectly clear.

“Kevin, let me get a hit of that,” Cas requested as Kevin handed him his inhaler.  It didn’t go unnoticed that Benny had been politely silent as this situation played out, and if Castiel didn’t know better, he’d say his classmate was doing his best to keep the amusement from showing on his face.  Finally, the two caught their breath, and Kevin shoved everything back into his pack, wrestling the rest of a sack of dried fruit into it at last.

“You fellas all settled?  Fifty feet down, about three and a half miles to go,” Benny chuckled as they slowly began walking up the path again.

“Shut up ‘Eagle-Chess-Rugby-Hoodlum.’ Not all of us grew up hiking Mount Everest every other weekend, which I’m sure you did,” Kevin mocked lazily.

“That’s silly…I’ve only climbed it twice.”

“Shut up,” Kevin called again as he chucked some of the dried fruit he had been snacking on at Benny’s head, who just playfully winked back.

They continued on their way, up the dirt trail that wove around and through the mountain and trees.  Castile took pictures with his camera as he went.  Benny would point out the plants he was familiar with, and patiently explain to Kevin why he couldn’t eat the red berries on the bushes.  Every once in a while they would stop to look at the map when a fork in the road appeared. 

Benny had managed to explain to Castiel how to read a topographic map, visualizing a 3D image with the contour lines on the paper (a refresher from one of their labs).  Kevin still requested they tutor him more, because he wanted to be able to do it himself (he had set out to be a proper explorer after all).  On one occasion he had guided them down a gully he thought was a ridge, and as they backtracked Kevin’s perseverance didn’t falter, but his stamina would, so they would make sure to take breaks.

Even though their pace was slow, Cas was enjoying his day.  Kevin had really impressed him by keeping a good attitude, even after getting lost.  He had feared it would have made him give-up and put a downer on the rest of the day, but Kevin Tran was used to working hard to achieve and today was no exception.

Benny was a surprisingly welcomed companion.  Not only was he very useful given his scouting background, but he had a calming effect on the group, always composed, but still present.

That let Castiel do what he did best, which was to take note of everything; and he did.  Along with taking photos, he was taking notes on the fun facts Benny would share about the plants; and marked along on his own map the direction they had headed and how long it was taking them.  Also, during their little refreshers, he would take the opportunity to make quick little sketches of the scenery.  Cas even managed to take some notes on the granites along the mountain trail to compare them to the ones they would find in the caves.

He was enjoying himself, and he was keeping his mind occupied from wandering back to Dean Winchester.

After having slept on the miserable revelation he’d had the previous day, he couldn’t help but wonder if he’d overacted.  It was a bit of a stretch to assume Jo and Dean were an item based off of one small comment she’d made.

That didn’t change the fact that the incident had sobered him up.  He had been slipping, allowing himself to hope and to crush on Dean even when he’d promised himself he wouldn’t.  And the crazy string of thoughts that had followed Jo’s comment was just the reminder he needed to keep himself in line.  He didn’t need the type of heartache he’d experienced before…and somehow that overreaction had convinced him that maybe he wasn’t ready to put himself out there like that.  Not yet. 

They made their way up about half way, coming to a full stop when one of Castiel’s shoelaces snapped as he was trying to tie them tighter.  Luckily, Kevin had extra, and after digging in his overstuffed bag for a few seconds, handed it over.

“For sure, we should stop to have lunch when we reach the caves, before starting on the assignment.  Probably get there right around noon at the leisurely pace we’re going,” Benny suggested as Castiel worked on his shoe.

He tugged the string through his boot, and as soon as he felt it was secure, stood back up to join his team. 

That was when they heard a loud gurgling sound.

“Once again, I think you’re right Benny.  Although, I don’t think Kevin will hold out if his stomach is already growling like that,” Cas quipped.

“That wasn’t me making those noises,” Kevin said looking slightly confused, “I thought it was one of you guys but I didn’t say anything because it’s rude,” he side-eyed Cas for calling him out.  “I’ve been eating dried fruit.”

“Not me either, I’ve been eating the dried fruit that keeps getting chucked at my head,” responded Benny, side-eying Kevin.

“Okay, so what the hell was it?”

And again they heard it, but louder now.  It was a strange, angry, oscillating sound, getting louder and now accompanied by some sort of tapping.  It wasn’t at all familiar to Castiel.

Kevin was the first to go still.  His facial features became contorted.  (The same face Castiel wore when he binge ate strawberry pancakes.)  Castiel was just about to ask him if he needed alone time for some bowel movements when he was cut off.

“SHIT ITS A PEACOCK!” cried Kevin, and hastily reached around to grab something, anything, from his backpack.

“Kevin, that’s not a peacock, it’s a turkey,” Benny corrected him, but still looked a bit nervously at the large bird obviously irritated by their presence.  “Stay still.”

Castiel hadn’t moved except to turn around in order to face the direction of the (in his opinion) unrealistically huge animal.  It kept calling, gobbling at them and straight up looking alarming.  To say they were all shitting themselves, would be an understatement.  He and Benny stayed still, but ready to bolt, while Kevin searched through his bag for something to defend himself with.  Apparently, the best he could do was a fly swatter.

“Benny, what do we do?” Castiel asked quietly, taking a few steps back every time the turkey took one forward, pecking and shouting as it went.  That beak looked like it could tear them to pieces.

“Don’t know much about turkey’s actually,” Benny admitted.  “I think we should run.”

“Run?!” Kevin exclaimed.

“Shh!!”

“Run?” he asked again more quietly.  The turkey was probably only 15 feet away from them at this point, “That bird is about to stick its turkey toes in us, and your brilliant idea is to run?”

“You got any better ideas?”  Castiel whispered back.

The turkey started charging them.

“No! RUN!”

The bird crashed through the few small bushes, which prompted the three terrified students to haul ass up the mountain path.

Benny was apparently really fast for his size, and quickly overtook Castiel who was chanting, “shit shit shit shit!” under his breath, and Kevin who had chosen to ditch his stuffed daypack behind in the hopes of outrunning the feathered menace that was gaining on them.

As Benny passed the other two up, a yellow lump flew out of his jacket hoody and pegged Castiel right in the eye.  It was sweaty from the heat and stuck to his cheek.  Slightly grossed out, Cas plucked it from his face, and realized it was a piece of dried mango that must have gotten lodged in Benny’s sweater when Kevin kept throwing shit at him.

“Kevin!”  Castiel turned around and shouted again to get his classmate’s attention.  “Kevin! Where’s your sack of dried fruit?”

Kevin could barely respond as he was gasping for air, but managed to force out:  “In my pack,” in between breathes.  That didn’t help much considering he had left his daypack behind.

They were coming up on a fork in the path, and of course didn’t have any time to check the map to see which way they were meant to go.  The turkey gobbled louder, the persistent little shit, and the three boys kicked it into high gear, feet pounding the dirt road.

“Kevin, you don’t have _anything_ in the 300 pockets on your vest?!” Castiel asked in desperation.

“Hold on! Left breast!” he shouted as he seemed to remember, “My stash of pomegranates!”

“Chuck ‘em!”shouted Benny from the front of their little stampede.

 Kevin quickly grabbed two halves of a pomegranate from his front vest pocket and launched them at the insane turkey just a few feet behind them.  The first one knocked it on its head, and only seemed to anger it more, but the second one clocked it on the face.  The damn bird must have gotten a taste of the sweet seeds because it immediately halted its pursuit of the offending humans in favor of partaking in a second breakfast.

“Holy crap!” Kevin cheered, as the group kept sprinting left at the fork in the road, and up a good ways for safe measure.

Once they no longer heard the threatening sounds of the killer turkey, they finally crashed to a stop.

“What the hell was wrong with that bird?”  Kevin huffed.

“It might’ve been territorial,” suggested Benny.

“No, it just wanted your sweet seeds, Kevin,” Castiel said dryly.

“Ugh, shut up.”

The three boys took a second to allow their hearts to stop pounding, and while Cas and Kevin stopped wheezing, Benny checked the map.

“Well I’ll be damned.  That pissed-off poultry did us a favor.  We’re only about a quarter of a mile away from the caves; be there in no time.”

“I suppose so, if you think being a bit ahead of schedule merits being nearly skewered by ‘turkey toes’ as Kevin calls them,” Cas winced at the stich in his side.

“Well then what are they called?” Kevin asked, “And more importantly, what is it doing up here in the mountains?” but no one bothered to clarify (probably because no one knew).

Benny gave Kevin a spare water bottle (after he announced that he’d have to drink his own pee after all) since he had basically left all of his gear at the scene of the crime.  After a few short moments they started again at a near glacial speed toward the caves.

“Are you guys going to tell anyone we got chased up a mountain by a demon Turkey?”  Kevin wondered aloud.

“Maybe a few years from now when the night terrors and the vivid flashbacks cease,” Castiel answered.

“Yeah, too soon,” was all Benny said.

Castiel couldn’t even try and reflect on what his morning had consisted of.  Just last night, his biggest woe in life was a one-sided crush on a boy and just two minutes ago he was running for his life from Satan’s pet turkey.  It kind of put the severity of his unrequited love in perspective.  If he could survive a turkey attack, he could figure out a way to deal with the ‘Freckled-faced-fuck’.

“Castiel, you took AP Spanish.  Would you tell Benny I’m right, that ‘Peligro’ is Spanish for demon-turkey?” Kevin interrupted his thoughts.

“Actually, it means ‘danger’ but I guess it’s synonymous in this case.”

“Hah, knew it.”

“Quiet, before I call the turkey back over here,” threatened Benny.

The last leg of the hike went by in relative silence, as everyone was recovering from the sprint up the mountain and saving their energy.  Soon they found themselves at the mouth of the first cave.  They could see on the map that the second cave was about a mile further up the trail.

They stopped to have lunch.  Kevin awkwardly sat down on a nearby boulder and apparently realized for the first time that he had no lunch.  He didn’t have any of his gear, except for the water bottle Benny had lent him.  He got back up and made a big show about heading back down the trail, the way they came.

“Tran, where are you going?” Benny asked.

“Back down there to find that damn turkey.  I’m gonna catch it, and I’m going to eat it!”

“Or, you can have one of my sandwiches,” Castiel offered.  “Besides, didn’t you stuff the pockets of your vest with food?  And while we’re on the subject, who the hell, carries pomegranates around?”

“—Alright, alright, stop pressuring me.  I’ll help you eat your lunch.” Kevin cut him off, happily taking one of the subs that Castiel offered.

Once they were done with lunch, they were finally ready to venture into their mapping area.  Benny immediately produced a flashlight from his backpack (because caves are dark, duh) so Cas and Kevin followed his lead.

The cave was about ten feet in height, and wide enough at the mouth to fit a minivan through, but appeared to get narrower the further back it went, and it did seem to go a ways back.

“What exactly are we supposed to be looking at?  The rocks here don’t look like the ones in lab.  Those had large crystals on them.  These are just…brown.”  Kevin wondered aloud.

“That’s because they are weathered.  These have been exposed for some time, we need a fresh surface.” Castiel explained.

“Ok, so we need to break the rock,” Kevin summarized.

This presented a problem.  They hadn’t thought this far ahead, how were they going to break rock?

“What if we find a flat one, and then place another rock on top, and then smash it with…another rock?” Kevin suggested, sounding more and more unsure of what he was saying with every word that left his mouth.

“We don’t have many options, might as well give it a try,” Cas agreed with a shrug.

They aimed their flash lights to the ground and started looking for rocks that would meet their boulder busting needs.  Kevin pointed out a rock that was already half buried in the ground that would make a good platform.  Castiel then placed a football sized sample that looked like it was as good as any to break.  Now they had to find one to use as a ‘smasher’ as it were. 

Kevin just went for the biggest rock he could lift.  “Okay, so do you want to hold the other rock in place?”

“What if you smash my hand?” Cas asked seriously.

“Well if we don’t hold it, the rock can just shoot out from underneath and clock one of us.”

“Then we’re all at even chances of getting hit, instead of just me.”

It was then that Castiel realized Benny was awfully silent again, a trait that usually indicated he didn’t want to interrupt his and Kevin’s thought process.

In other words…he was laughing at them.

Castiel turned to find Benny, and saw that he had walked back towards the mouth of the cave in order to search through his backpack.

“Benny, I swear, if you have some sort of jack hammer in there, I will feed you to the turkey myself.”

“No, no jackhammer, I left that in Tran’s daypack back there,” Benny chuckled.  “I do however, have a good old fashioned rock hammer that might do the trick.”

“Why are you like this?” Kevin shot him a death glare “You could have mentioned that from the get go.”

Benny looked sincerely at both of his groupmates, “No way.  I’m never one to squander a learning moment.”

“Fine, but at least let me do the breaking.”

Benny handed the rock hammer over to Kevin, who after a few shy (what he called ‘practice’ tries), busted open a few sizeable hand samples from the less weathered rocks they could find.

“Pink feldspars galore,” Castiel said automatically upon inspection of the sample once they got outside of the cave.

“That makes it a Type 2” Kevin nodded.

Castiel noted it down on his handout as he and Kevin went through and checked to make sure the other minerals from Type 2 were found in their sample.

Meanwhile, Benny took out his map and colored in the cave purple to indicate the rock type they found.

They took a few moments to write up their descriptions and decided to head to the second cave.

“Imagine we get up there and the damn turkey is waiting for us.”

“Dude, don’t even say that.”

Soon enough they had made it to the second cave, which was about the same size as the first, but did not go as far back.  They could actually see the end of the cave in this one.

“This cave is a lot smaller, it shouldn’t take too long to finish this up,” Castiel said as he slowly walked toward the back.

“You know Castiel, every time you say the word ‘cave’ I can’t help but think of the _other_ word,” Kevin shyly mentioned.

“What word?” Benny asked curiously.

“Vagina,” Castiel answered bluntly.

“Oh.”

“Don’t just say it like that, Castiel!  There is a whole back story to it,” Kevin assured Benny.

“I’m sure there is brother, but not all things are meant to be shared.”

“You _know_ …Lady Caves!” Kevin offered as a last ditch effort to explain, but Benny didn’t seem to understand.

“Maybe we should just focus on the assignment for right now,” Benny suggested.

Again they busted open a rock using the hammer, and with sample in hand, headed outside the cave in order to make their rock interpretations.

“This one has a lot more quartz,” Castiel observed, and rambled off the other minerals found in the sample.

They concluded that it was Type 1 and used red to fill in the area on their maps.

“What I don’t get, is why it has these bands, or whatever, of black rock running through it,” Kevin wondered as he answered the questions on his handout.

“There can be a few reasons, but the most likely thing is that some sort of magma mixing happened where two different compositions somehow came together during the cooling process,” Benny replied only half paying attention, as he too was filling out his assignment.

“That actually makes sense,” Kevin sounded surprisingly impressed instead of annoyed.  “You really do know what you’re talking about when you go on tangents with the professor, huh?”

Benny straightened out from where he was leaning on a tree and began to pocket his hand-outs.  “Oh yeah, well I’ve been around Bobby a lot, he’s a friend of my parent’s.  Grew up listening to him go on and on about this stuff, both me and Jo actually.”

“Nepotism, I knew it!” Kevin accused teasingly.

Castiel couldn’t help but interject, “You’ve known Jo since you were little?”

“Sure, she’s Bobby’s niece, always tagged along wherever she could that he’d take her, has a taste for adventure, that one.”

Castiel didn’t want to ask straight up if Benny knew Dean, but he had to decrypt Jo’s comment from last night for his own piece of mind.

“Did you guys ever camp out?  Like, around here?” he asked, and hoped that he sounded casual.

“They did, sure.  Me not so much since I was always kind of involved in other things.”

“You forget that he’s been training for the Rugby Olympics held on Mount Everest, since he was an embryo, Cas.” Kevin poked fun.

“Doesn’t everyone?”  Benny quipped back.

And Castiel knew he’d lost his chance at pursuing the topic any further without arising suspicion.

But fuck it, he had to know.

… _tonight at the campfire._

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that it's taking me longer to update, but rest assured this fic will NOT be abandoned. Thank you for your patience, and if at least one person gets a tiny 'heh' out of this, then it would have all been worth it.
> 
> I'm looking forward to Dean and Cas having their reunion and then of course the Vagina Monologues Date still to come!!


	9. Cock Blocked in the Parking Lot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel returns from his trip, back to reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New wave of inspiration.

Castiel sat in his tent comparing the notes he took along their hike to the questions on his assignment, checking to see if he couldn’t answer the questions anymore thoroughly.  He got to a point where he actually felt like he wasn’t totally bullshitting it and smiled because maybe he _could_ do this whole college thing.

He checked his watch.  The assignment was due at the beginning of their final meeting, which was in about 10 minutes.  Castiel had already planned the situation in his head.  He would find Benny, sit next to him and engage him in conversation once the meeting was over…and that was pretty much as far as he had gotten with his so-called master plan.

Was he being crazy? 

Castiel stopped to look at this situation objectively:  He liked Dean, but he didn’t _want_ to like Dean, but he didn’t want Dean to like anyone else, or to have _ever_ of liked anyone else.

_I’m insane._

Well, the first step to recovery was acceptance.

Finally he decided that he needed to ask Benny these questions for closure.  He needed to hear it from an objective party that Dean and Cas weren’t going to happen.  Whether that was because he was involved with Jo, or due to some other kind of damning evidence he would try to get from Benny, he needed to hear it so he could put this crush to rest.

He emerged from his tent and made his way to the main campfire where the other students had dragged their chairs and were lounging about waiting for the meeting to begin.  He placed his folder containing the finally completed assignments in the pile with the others.

“Good job today.” Professor Bobby announced, “Assignments are now due, and you will get them back in a few weeks, graded.  We head back tomorrow at 8am, we should be back early evening.  Once we’ve arrived in the parking lot, and the vans are cleaned out, you’re free to go.  Any questions?”  After a few beats of silenced and general murmurs of understanding from the class, Professor Bobby declared they were free for the night.

A few insane groups of students decided to wander up the trail, because much to Castiel’s confusion, there are actually people who hike for fun.  Luckily, Benny seemed to be of a sounder mind and was part of the group of students that remained.

The sun had already set and the night was growing colder.  The remaining students again split into groups, those who headed to their warm tents, and those who gathered around the campfire.  Benny, the ever unknowingly-cooperative one, remained seated by the campfire.  Kevin had announced his allergy medication had made him drowsy and decided to retire for the night, leaving Castiel his chance to interrogate his classmate.

“I take it you’re a night-owl, Cas?”  Benny noted when Castiel remained at the campfire after most had gone to bed.

“I shouldn’t be.  It’s torture getting up for class, but I sabotage myself with naps in the late afternoon.  It’s a vicious cycle.”

“That explains the coffee addiction,” Benny mused.

Castiel tried to piece together how Benny would know about his love of caffeine.  But he didn’t let himself wonder too much because after all Kevin could have told him or maybe Benny was just that observant.  He responded with a vague nod and the two fell silent again, both gazing at the campfire.

“How’d you end up doing on the assignment?” Castiel prompted casually.

“Didn’t have much trouble with it.  I even had enough time to go fetch Tran’s gear from where he left it,” Benny responded with a small smile.

“It was honestly a relief having you in our group today; we would have been lost, literally.”

“It was nothing, I’m sure you guys would have managed.”

Finally, Cas saw his chance.  He tried hard not to let his nerves show.  “I think you’re giving us too much credit.  Neither of us had ever gone camping before.  Kevin went shopping with his mom just last week and I had to borrow all the camping gear from my friend, Dean Winchester.”

Castiel winced.

_Not too sure if my tone was exactly nonchalant…_

Benny didn’t seem bothered by it.

 “Dean Winchester.  Haven’t seen that kid in a few years,” he mused.

“Well he’s a freshman at school; I met him through my English class.  How do you know him?” 

Yeah, Castiel wasn’t exactly being delicate with his questions, but fuck it, when else would he have the chance…

“He hates me,” Benny said bluntly.

“That’s…interesting.  He doesn’t seem the type to hate anyone.”

Benny finally turned to look directly at Castiel.  He trained his soulful gaze on him for a few seconds, before shrugging his shoulders.  Cas was afraid he was going to leave it at that, but he didn’t feel comfortable prying into a topic Benny didn’t want to discuss.  After all, they had just become friends yesterday.

Maybe Benny appreciated that Castiel understood his boundaries.  Maybe he felt he could open up to him.  Or maybe he was two red solo cups into that Irish ‘hot chocolate’ he was drinking and was feeling extra chatty.  Whatever the reason, Benny suddenly began to explain the situation in broad strokes.

“I mentioned my family was friendly with Jo’s.  We had the same kind of relationship with the Winchesters.  We all lived in the same neighborhood.  All us kids were only a few years apart (I’m oldest).  We grew up together.”

“What happened?”

Benny chuckled softly.  “Dean was always the competitive sort.  I graduated middle school just as he entered it, and he joined all the same teams and clubs I had.  He swore it was a coincidence, but it was obvious he thought of me as a rival and set out to outdo all my achievements.”

“He sounds like a pain in the ass,” Cas laughed.

“Definitely,” Benny responded fondly then continued in a measured voice.  “When I was sixteen I finally became an Eagle scout.  That was the same year my dad was shipped out overseas.  A handful of weeks later he was killed.  A few days later I quit the scouts.”

Castiel sat silently.  He had no idea what to say to Benny so he said nothing.  His classmate didn’t take long to continue his story, obviously not wanting to focus on his father.

“After that, John looked after me a lot.  He and my dad had been great friends and he wanted to make sure I was ok.  Dean didn’t take too kindly to it.”

“John?”

“Dean’s father.” Benny side-eyed Castiel with minute hesitation, but didn’t dwell, and began to conclude their talk.

“I get why he was mad.  He was just a kid, his dad was his hero, and all of a sudden his dad was paying special attention to his ‘sworn enemy’.  My mom and I moved out to Kansas after a few months.  I didn’t get a chance to patch things up with Dean.  I just moved back here to attend school,” Benny summarized quickly.

“That’s…wow,” Castiel said quietly.

“It is what it is.”

Their conversation slowed after that.  And it wasn’t long before the two decided to make their way back to their respective tents.

Castiel hadn’t been able to ask Benny if he knew anything about Dean’s romantic history.  It had sounded incredibly moronic to try to steer the conversation that way after Benny had opened up.  He’d just have to figure out some other way to get closure with Dean.

***

The heard of rundown, school vans cruised quietly into the deserted university parking lot just as the sun was beginning to set.  The ride had been long and spent mostly in comfortable silence, most people sleeping or just too tired to chat.  Slowly the vehicles made their way into their designated parking spots and came to a stop.  Once the vans had been cleaned out and everyone had their gear sorted, rides were allowed to be called for, people were allowed to leave.  Professor Bobby called over his shoulder that he’d be in his office, and was the first to go.

Castiel sat on top of the plastic bin that had held the unperishable food.  He had to wait about half an hour for Gabriel to get out of class before he could be picked up.  Kevin stood beside him with his giant hiking backpack at his feet, texting his mom to come pick him up.

“Where’s Benny?  I was going to ask if he needed a ride home,” Kevin asked, looking up from his phone.

Castiel noticed that Kevin’s face fell a bit in disappointment, and had the decency to feel a little guilty for being so amused by it.  Kevin had started this field trip hating Benny, and now it seemed he kind of idolized him.

_How cute._

“I didn’t see where he went off to,” Castiel responded in earnest.

“The man’s a mystery,” Kevin commented, trailing off as a sedan pulled into the parking lot a few rows over.  “Oh, there’s Mom.  You have a ride Castiel?”

“Yes I do, thank you,” Castiel then stood and waved awkwardly as Kevin’s mom approached them, “Hello Mrs. Tran.”  She returned his greetings and began the task of helping Kevin haul his stuff to their vehicle.

Either Kevin was too weak from the trip, or somehow his pack had gotten heavier, but he was having some trouble getting all of his gear into his mom’s car.  Castiel was just about to walk over and give Mrs. Tran a hand (Kevin was wheezing off to the side) when a familiar old pickup truck pulled up right beside them.  And for some freaking reason Dean Winchester jumped out.

Castiel watched as Dean instantly took the heavy backpack from Mrs. Tran and easily stowed it into the trunk of the car.  He then helped pile in the folded up mattress, two-way radio, and enormous tent gear.  If Castiel wasn’t too busy getting a grip on himself, he’d have been impressed with the efficiency of it all.

Finally, Dean even helped Kevin retrieve his inhaler from his backpack and climb inside the passenger side door.  With a final handshake for Mrs. Tran, they were all packed up and went on their way.

_What the fuck was that?_ Castiel was dumbfounded.  _Why was Dean here again?_

Almost as if he had heard Cas’ thoughts, Dean turned around and instantly made eye contact with him.  He cracked a smile and began making his way over to him through the parking lot.

_Shit._

“Cas!”

“Shit.”

“What?” Dean half-smiled as he reached Castiel and his pile of gear.

_Why are you here, asshole…_ He thought, temperature spiking with shame as he realized that the last time he had spoken to Dean was through a PA system in a deserted supermarket in the wee hours of the morning.  When he basically offered him his V-card.

“Way to make me look bad,” he tried to make his voice light.  “You came to Mrs. Tran’s rescue before I could.”

“Oh! You mean that nice lady and the sweaty kid back there?” Dean asked good-humoredly.

“Yes, the ‘sweaty kid’ was my lab partner, Kevin,” Castiel couldn’t help but laugh.

 Dean gave him a short nod, “You don’t say.  That was the lab partner I keep hearing so much about.”

Castiel waited.  Dean’s face looked pleasant enough, but his voice had suddenly become more measured.  Inevitably, there was silence as the two met eye-to-eye for the first time in a while.

Castiel was sincerely begging the universe that he didn’t look as mortified as he actually felt.  But his hands became sweaty, his skin prickly, and his mouth was dry causing his voice to sound low and gravelly.  He cleared his throat a few times.

The noise seemed to break Dean away from whatever he had been contemplating in silence.  Castiel prayed that he hadn’t been reliving the night a few days ago, but let’s face it, what else could either of them be thinking about at this point.  He had to change the subject quick, but his wit had left him floundering.

“Dean I—“he began, but was quickly cut off.

“—Glad to see I’m ‘Dean’ again.  It’s a lot nicer than ‘Asshat Winchester’,” Dean interrupted.  His voice had sounded confident again, but his expression looked questioning, like a toddler testing his boundaries.

_There it is._

Castiel was momentarily distracted by the conflict of wanting to scream his head off while at the same time needing to shrivel up into a tiny little nothing.  The warring emotions paralyzed him, and for a few seconds he did nothing.  But neither did Dean.

_Why?  Is he laughing at me?  Is he uncomfortable too...He’s kind of just staring at me..._

_oh…This fucker is waiting to gauge my reaction._

The realization hit Castiel and suddenly his brain began to catch up.  Deliberate or not, by waiting for Castiel to react first to the subject of that horrifying night, Dean was letting him set the tone.  However Cas responded, Dean would surely take his lead.

_I have no idea how to deal with this._

Castiel felt panic again, but decided he had to say something.

“Right, well…since you gave me a nickname, I thought it appropriate to give you one.  Don’t you like it?”  Again his voice sounded low and rough to his own ears, so he cleared his throat one more time.

Dean perked up cautiously, seemingly not expecting Castiel to respond with nonchalance.  His eyes were roaming Castiel’s face, trying to interpret his meaning.

“Nicknames, I don’t mind.  But it’s a bit harsh don’t ya think?”  Dean responded, shrugging and offering a smile to show he wasn’t seriously hurt by the term.  “But I guess it’s better than ‘freckled-faced fuck,’” he chuckled and shook his head.

Castiel was very close to passing out from the humiliation he was feeling, but he was not going to cower in front of Dean, or he’d never live it down.  He just had to act like it really had been a one-off drunken debacle.  He leaned into his sarcastic dry delivery almost on instinct, and prayed he was pulling it off naturally.

“Well I suppose it’s open for suggestions, but as of now I’m sorry to inform you that those are your only two options,” he rambled off steadily, meeting Dean’s eyes, while secretly dying on the inside.

Dean finally hammered it home when he quirked up an eyebrow and practically whispered, “You always think about me when you’re drunk, Cas?”  He took a step forward and was peering into Castiel’s eyes.

Cas felt something snap inside of him, like a switch being flipped on violently.  He was pissed that Dean was teasing him; that he was nervous and embarrassed while Dean seemed so cool and composed.  He was mad that neither one was explicitly bringing up how Cas had announced that he wanted to fuck Dean.  It was making him feel more shame by not mentioning it, like it was a dirty secret that neither was ‘brave’ enough to relive out loud.

But at the same time, Cas was picking up on the fact that Dean kept inching closer.  He held his gaze; his voice was low so that their conversation remained intimate in the deserted parking lot.  This thing between them had ignited in the weirdest fucking way, and Castiel impulsively wanted to be the one to cross that line they were teetering on.

He swallowed hard one last time to clear his throat.  Almost on cue, a large black SUV came swiftly cruising into the lot and suddenly parked only a few spaces from where Cas and Dean were having their little standoff.  The sound of the engine drowned out Cas’ first few words, and effectively silenced the rest of the would-be declaration.

All at once, the far end passenger side door opened, letting someone out, and the vehicle drove off almost as quickly as it had appeared.

Benny was left standing there, apparently having gone and changed into casual business attire, a button down shirt worn underneath a dark blue blazer and a pair of slacks.  He held a leather briefcase in one hand and was checking the time on his other.

Castiel was distracted by the interruption itself, the car pulling in had acted like a cold shower and sobered him up to the realization that he had been seconds from making a mistake and confessing his feelings to Dean.  By the time he looked up, Benny was walking away towards the lecture hall nearby at a quick pace.

“Curious, I wonder what Benny is doing back here.  He disappeared after we got back from the trip.”  Castiel said with obvious relief in his voice.  In fact his gratefulness towards his classmate had consumed him completely.  It wasn’t until he turned to see the expression on Dean’s face that he remembered the two of them had bad history between them.

Dean had gone silent.  A few times he opened his mouth to speak but closed it again and again, seemingly not knowing how to articulate whatever was going through his mind.  Finally he looked at Castiel and simply explained that he was late.

“I’m supposed to give Jo a ride home.  I’m sure she’s in Bobby’s office.  See ya later.”

Dean turned and walked away without looking back.

Castiel was left standing there by his plastic bin.  He felt uneasy at how quickly the energy between him and Dean had changed.  One second there was a strong electric pull between the two of them, and the next it felt like that switch had been flipped right off.

Benny had explained that Dean hated him, but Castiel never felt such a chill roll off of Dean like that before.  And worse yet, Castiel didn’t know how to help, or if it was even his place to help.

And a small, selfish part of Castiel couldn’t help but focus on the tiny sting that came along with the fact that Dean had shown up to pick up Jo.

With a long drawn out sigh, Castiel allowed his exhaustion and anxiety to roll through him.  He was just about to pop a squat on his plastic bin when…

 

 –BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPP!!!!

“SHIT!” Castiel cursed and jumped and maybe peed a little at the sudden blaring of a car horn only a few feet away from him.  He turned back and his face instantly went pink when he noticed his cousin’s car quietly waiting.

Gabe got out and popped the trunk, then walked over to help Castiel carry his gear.

“By the way Cassie, I got out of class early and was able to find this nice parking spot.  It has a really nice view of two dorky freshmen being embarrassing,” Gabriel snorted.

“You mean you’ve been here this whole time?  Why didn’t you text me?”

“I came in right behind prince charming’s flatbed chariot, not surprised you didn’t notice me.  I wanted to see how things played out.”

“You’re going to hell.”

“You’re going to walk.”

Castiel stared at his cousin with an icy glare and burning ears…for all of two seconds before caving, “I am so sorry, you’re a beautiful person.  Please don’t make me walk.”

“Get in the freaking car, Cassie.  There are strawberry pancakes waiting for us back home!”


End file.
